


My Brother's Keeper

by candrahearts



Category: Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!
Genre: Alternate Canon, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anxiety, Canon Rewrite, Canon-Typical Violence, Family Fluff, Flashbacks, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Minor Original Character(s), Mostly Canon Compliant, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Original Character, Pre-Canon, Team as Family, this au is pretty much the same as canon except Chiro has a big sister!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:20:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 79,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26409364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/candrahearts/pseuds/candrahearts
Summary: Once upon a time, in Shuggazoom City, lived a pair of siblings who loved each other very much. The boy had a magical destiny—he was to become the blade that would shatter the darkness that threatened to destroy the universe. And the girl would become the shield to guard him, to protect him from everything the universe could throw at them.Amber Rinelli knew her brother better than anyone. She knew that Chiro had wanted to be a hero his entire life. When he was given the opportunity to realize that dream by becoming leader of the Hyperforce, she watched him go with a little bit of worry. She loved him too much for anything to happen to him, and she knew that the life of a hero was a very dangerous one. But as Chiro went along his hero’s journey, Amber found herself getting wrapped up in the middle of all the Hyperforce’s troubles as well. And so Amber’s story became the story of two siblings, five cyborg monkeys, a robot girl, and a super robot—a team, a family bonded in love and light, that would stand tall against the forces of darkness.(Or, it’s basically a show rewrite from the POV of Chiro’s sister!)
Relationships: Chiro & Original Female Character, Monkey Team & Original Female Character
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	1. in which cookies and secrets are shared, and Chiro and his sister both gain a friend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's finally here! the story I've been hanging onto for over four years is finally getting posted! I'm so excited to finally share Amber's story with everyone! 
> 
> This chapter is based on S1E1, _Chiro's Girl!_

Amber was stress baking again.

This seemed to happen at least once a week.

Which would be a lot more _manageable_ if she had a lot of people that could eat the dozens and dozens of cookies that continued to surge from her oven. She lived by herself these days, but she usually got around this problem by giving away the cookies to people around town—like Ma and Pa Shenko or Mr. Gakslapper or Mrs. Hanna.

Too bad she’d already given most of the people she worked with, talked to, or hung out with baked goods this month. Now she had to figure out what she was going to do with _these_.

She pulled her current batch out of the oven and slammed the tray down on the stovetop a little harder than she meant to. She sighed and apologized to the cookie sheet and tucked her wispy black strands back behind her ears.

Anxiety was super, super fun.

She knew the pattern, though—whenever Chiro called and told her about his training and the monsters he’d been fighting, she would always be enthusiastic and supportive of him, but then later she would work through her worries by baking a couple dozen of whatever cookies she randomly flipped the cookbook page to.

She loved and adored her brother with every fiber of her being and the fact that he was now a hero in charge of protecting her city and her world just drove her nuts. He was in danger all the time and that made her heart hurt. Well, if she’d learned anything from watching dozens of hours’ worth of _The Sun Riders_ with him, it was that danger just came with being a hero; on the other hand though, it was always a team effort and most of the time success depended on being able to work well with those you worked with. She knew the Robot Monkeys were with him, teaching him, protecting him, and that made her feel a little better. At least he wasn’t alone.

She sighed again and worked a spatula under the edges of the nice dark chocolate cookies. They came up easily, and the corner of her mouth turned up. Maybe today wasn’t going to be awful after all.

_Knock-knock-knock!_

She wasn’t expecting anyone… maybe it was her mailman? She had ordered a box set of new manga to read, earlier in the week. It could be that. Honestly, she would take any entertainment she could get to distract herself from the anxious soup in her own head.

But when Amber opened the door, she found something even better than a box of brand-new manga.

Her eyes grew wide as dishes. “CHIRO!”

She barely had time to open her arms before Chiro ran into them, winding his arms around her waist and crushing her to him.

“Chiro, lemme breathe, lemme breathe…” she wheezed, and the boy released his grip just a little. “Holy Shuggazoom, Chiro, I missed you so much…”

“I missed you too,” Chiro mumbled into her shoulder.

“Oh, it feels like so long since I’ve seen you,” she sighed as she ran her fingers through his thick black hair.

“It hasn’t been that long, I called you last night,” Chiro said, rolling his head to the side and looking up at her. “I call you every night, just like you asked me to.”

“This is the first time I’ve seen you in person in two months,” Amber replied, tapping her knuckles on the top of his head. “I’m sorry to say that I’m happy to see you.”

He smiled at that, and she just held him a little while longer, reveling in the tangibility, the solidness of him. After a few more moments she released him and held him at arm’s length. “You must have grown a little bit since the last time I saw you,” she observed. “You’re just about as tall as my chin.”

“Yeah, probably.” Chiro smoothed his unruly dark hair back into submission. “Gibson insists on doing physicals like once every week to make sure I’m not hurting myself with training and stuff? And I think he did mention that I did get maybe a liiiittle bit taller?”

Amber snorted. “Sounds right.” She tilted her head and folded her arms. “Okay, so what’s going on? I distinctly remember that we agreed that you shouldn’t be around me. Wait, did something happen to the Monkey Team?”

Chiro shook his head violently. “No, no, they’re fine. Nothing like that. I’m just here… I’m here because I have someone I want you to meet.” He pointed at the figure shyly loitering at the bottom of the porch steps.

For the first time, Amber noticed the girl. She was about Chiro’s age and height, with mint green eyes and pink hair tied into two low ponytails. She was wearing an orange shirt under a green jumper that perfectly matched her eyes, with Mary Janes the same color and white socks. Emblazoned right on the front of the her jumper was a huge pink heart that covered the whole front of her torso.

Chiro motioned for her to come closer, and she ascended the stairs lightly and curtsied to Amber. “This is Jinmay.”

Of all the reasons Chiro would come to visit, bringing someone to meet her was not one she would have ever expected. She shook her head quickly, then smiled to reassure them. “Pleased to meet you, Jinmay. Please come in.” The two teens made their way past her into the house. As Amber was about to close the door, she caught some movement out of the corner of her eye. It was Mr. Cunningham, her mailman.

“Amber, hello!” he said cheerily as he lifted a box out of the back of his blue truck. “For you!” He plunked it down into her arms. She looked at the return address. It was her manga after all.

Today was actually turning out pretty great.

“Thank you, Mr. C,” she said, turning and placing the box on her hip. “How are you doing?”

“Busy, of course, what with all the last minute school-related packages.” He rolled his shoulders and smiled at her through his bushy yellow mustache. “You’re finished with school, aren’t ya? Headed to university soon?”

Amber smiled tensely, a drop of sweat rolling down her neck. Truthfully, she didn’t know what she was going to do this year. University did loom above her like the Super Robot did over the people of Shuggazoom… but she wasn’t sure if she was mentally, physically, or financially prepared enough to do it anytime soon. The future was uncertain, that much was for sure. “I did graduate from high school this past May, Mr. C. I got honor roll and excellence in literature, language arts, and pre-calculus.”

“Atta girl! I’m proud of ya.” Mr. C grinned. “How’s Chiro doin’? Keeping up with everything?”

“Oh, I’m sure he’s very busy,” Amber snorted. “He’s doing fine, though.”

Mr. C nodded sagely. “Good, good. Glad to hear it.” He took a deep breath and perked up a little, his mustache twitching as he sniffed. “Do I smell… chocolate?”

Oh, the door was still cracked open. “I did make some cookies today, would you care to take a couple for the road?”

“If you’re offering, I could never say no!”

Amber laughed and went back in the house, dropping her box in the corner of the stairwell. She ducked back into the kitchen, grabbed and wrapped a handful of her newest batch and stepped back out onto the porch. “Here you go, Mr. C. Didn’t mean to keep you waiting.”

“Wasn’t long at all.” He took the cookies from her. “Amber, you made my day so much better just now, thank you so much. Now I gotta go, lots of boxes left in this quadrant. Take care!”

“You’re welcome! And thank you for my package!” Amber called after him as he got back in his truck and sped off. She shut the door, locked it, sighed, and tried to mentally steel herself for whatever her brother was planning on doing.

As her fingers slid the deadbolt back in place, Chiro appeared in the living room door. “Amber, you okay?”

Amber turned. “Yeah, that was Mr. C. He had a box for me and of course he wanted to chat a bit, sorry for taking so long!”

“Oh, no, it’s okay!” Chiro blushed a bit. “I took Jinmay around the house for a minute and we were talking in the living room since you were busy.”

“Oh. Okay.” Amber turned her body fully toward him. “Well, I did just make cookies, if you think you two would like some then I can plate some up.”

Chiro tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Depends on what kind.”

Oh, it was _on_. “Triple chocolate. But you knew that, you know the smell.”

Chiro grinned widely. “Yeah, when I can actually breathe in the chocolate that means you’re making those.”

“You’re the worst.”

“You missed me.”

“I missed you _horribly_.”

They grinned at each other, and Amber put her hand on her hip. “Well, help me get the cookies on a platter and then I can finally stop and talk for a while.”

“Sounds good to me!”

Chiro helped her unstick the cookies from the sheet and Amber got them arranged nicely on a plate. They trooped back into the living room where Jinmay was carefully examining the decorative bouquet on the end table.

“Jinmay, we’ve got cookies,” Chiro told her as he placed the plate down in the middle of the coffee table.

“Oh, those look so good, thank you, Chiro!” Chiro again blushed a bit pink. Amber shook her head good naturedly. Jinmay pointed at the vase. “Miss, what kind of flowers are these?”

“It really was a miscellaneous bouquet… I think they’re roses and lilies.” Amber looked at the bouquet thoughtfully.

“They smell wonderful,” Jinmay confessed. “And the colors are so pretty, they make me really happy.”

“Thank you, Jinmay,” Amber said, smiling. They made her happy too, a pop of orange and pink and purple in a tan-painted room. “So what’s going on? I usually don’t get paid these special visits.”

“Well…” Chiro began. “I just… I just wanted to come see you and say hi, and just tell you about all the cool stuff Jinmay and I did today.”

Amber absorbed that information and nodded. “Are… are you new to Shuggazoom City, Jinmay? Where did you take her, Chiro?”

Jinmay smiled. “Yeah, I’m new, I think. I don’t know where anything is, and Chiro offered to take me around. And it’s been fun!”

Chiro looked at his sister, grinning widely. “We ate at the Hoverburger, we went to the arcade…” he counted on his fingers.

“…We scared Glenny and BT…” Jinmay continued.

“—and they _deserved_ it, thank you.” Chiro snorted.

“And Chiro said we’re going to go out and get a holo-cone later!” Jinmay finished excitedly.

“I don’t think I’ve had this much fun in forever!” Chiro said, swiping a cookie from the plate.

Amber looked at her brother sideways and he met her gaze as he nibbled on the edge of the cookie. He liked Jinmay. That much was achingly obvious. Well, he really hadn’t had much of a chance to have fun with kids his own age, especially a girl, since he’d joined the Monkey Team. And even before then, he never was much for making friends.

It was all right. She was happy that he was happy.

She could sense his sincerity and happiness through the bond connecting their minds. He was really very excited to have someone to have fun with, and he was so excited he had to share his excitement with his sister. And there was a little hint of extra blush on his cheeks that told her there might be something a little bit sweeter brewing under the surface. Something just a little bit deeper than strictly friendship. Amber smiled. Jinmay seemed to be a very sweet, fun, engaging girl. She also seemed to have had a good time with Chiro, which was nice. She was glad for that too.

Her attention was suddenly arrested by the fact that she’d reached for a cookie and they were almost all gone. “Jinmay? How many cookies did you eat?”

“Um… four?” She swallowed. “I’m sorry, they were really, really good, I couldn’t help it!”

“Well, I’m glad you’re enjoying them!” She snagged one of the remaining cookies as the two teens laughed.

She was halfway through her cookie when Chiro changed the subject again. “Wait, I think you forgot to introduce yourself,” he pointed out.

“Oh, right. I got distracted.” She brushed the cookie crumbs off her lap and sat up straight. “My name is Amber Rinelli.”

Jinmay nodded her head. “Nice to meet you, Miss Rinelli.”

“Amber, please,” the young woman said.

“Okay, Amber then,” Jinmay said, nodding affirmatively.

“You can tell her,” Chiro said quietly.

She knew exactly what he was talking about. “Are you sure? It’s supposed to be a secret.”

“I know. I want to tell her, I want her to know.” He smiled. “Makes it easier on me.”

“Want to tell me what?” Jinmay asked, crossing her ankles and grabbing for the last cookie.

Amber glanced sideways at Chiro, who shrugged sheepishly. She inhaled and let her breath out slowly. “Do you know why you’re here?”

Jinmay swallowed the cookie. “I don’t know, I don’t remember a lot before a couple of days ago… before I came to Shuggazoom.”

“Oh?” Amber didn’t really know what to say to that.

“No, not why you’re on Shuggazoom,” Chiro amended. “Why you’re here, in this house, with us.”

“I don’t know that either.” She crossed her legs and put her hands on her hips. “You know, Chiro, you didn’t explain anything—all you said was that this person you were going to take me to see was very important to you.”

Amber tilted her head at her brother, raising her brows questioningly, and his only response was to shrug again, harder. She shook her head, smiling. “Well, I don’t know if you’ve guessed it by now, but I am Chiro’s big sister. That’s why you’re here to see me.”

Jinmay’s eyes grew wide and her hands flew to the arms of her recliner. “No way! Really?” She leaned forward, looking at Amber then back at Chiro. “You’re his older sister?”

“Four years older,” Chiro said, grinning.

“Four and a half, technically,” Amber reminded him, snorting at the thought.

“Technically,” he grumbled.

“That’s so neat that you have a sister!” Jinmay said after a second, looking from one sibling to the other. “I probably should have guessed. I mean, you do look alike.”

“We know,” they sighed in unison. Jinmay giggled. Amber and Chiro each opened one eye, looked at each other, and began to laugh.

After the laughter had died down, Amber asked a question she’d just thought of. “Chiro, you said you took her around the house a little… did you show her the garage? I kept all your tools and projects—even the ones I wasn’t sure what to do with—I kind of just left everything where it was just in case you ever needed them again.”

“Yeah, I did,” he said, “While you were busy, I took some tools I wanted and my holograph projector. Is that okay?”

“Take whatever you need. Goodness knows I can’t use it.” She looked at the wall clock. It read 4:30. “You know the Holo-Cone shop closes in a few hours, right? You better get a move on if you want to go there tonight.”

Chiro looked at the clock as well. “You’re right. We should go.” He and Jinmay got up and made their way back to the front door. Amber followed.

Jinmay stood in the foyer for a moment, smoothing out her skirt, and Amber caught her brother’s eye once more. “Chiro, you still have your HVS, don’t you?”

Chiro took a small green marble from his pocket. “I always have it with me, don’t worry.”

Jinmay tilted her head, examining it. “HVS?” she queried

Amber pulled a matching sphere from her skirt pocket. “HVS stands for Holovideo Sphere. It’s a holographic video comm device. Chiro invented them when he was eight.” Spots of bright pink appeared on Chiro’s cheeks. “Well, you did!”

“Dad helped me…” he tried to explain.

Amber waved her hand. “Yeah, yeah, Dad did most of the hands-on work because he wasn’t about to let an eight-year-old weld circuitry. But it was your idea, and you drew up the blueprints, and you troubleshot the frequencies with him for like, weeks, before they worked right. As far as I’m concerned, you did a lot of the work, too.”

“That’s so cool!” Jinmay exclaimed. “Wow!”

Chiro’s blush deepened, but he grinned, a bit of pride showing itself through.

Jinmay twisted the doorknob and cracked the door open. “Thanks for taking me here, Chiro. It was really nice of you to bring me here to meet your sister.”

“You’re welcome. I’m glad you had fun!”

Amber folded her arms and leaned on the wall. “You’re always welcome here, Jinmay. If you ever need anything, I’ll do whatever I can to help, even if it’s not much.”

“You don’t have to do that if you don’t want to, Amber…” Chiro began.

“No, I want to.” There was something odd about this girl, something Amber couldn’t quite place, but all the protectiveness she usually heaped on her brother was expanding itself over Jinmay as well. Maybe this girl didn’t really have a home. That was possible. Amber shook her head and focused back on Chiro’s question. “She’s your friend, Chiro, and right now the universe is dangerous. Please come see me if you need anything, Jinmay.”

Jinmay smiled. “Thank you, Amber. I’ll remember that.”

Chiro slowly turned to face his sister, and Amber knew that he missed her already. “Oh, Chiro.” She held out her arms again. “Okay, last hug, then you’ve gotta go back.”

She held him tight to her once again, feeling the steady rhythm of his heartbeat against her own chest. _Thubump, thubump, thubump._

“Are you gonna be okay, Amber?” he asked quietly.

She sighed, a sigh that came from deep in her chest. “It’s okay, Chiro. I miss you, but what you’re doing now is more important.” He let go of her and looked up at her, and those bright blue eyes just like her own looking back at her were enough to almost make her cry. She took a deep breath to try and fight the tears back. “Don’t worry about me. Everything’s going to be okay. Just a couple of things okay?”

He nodded.

“One.” She held up a finger. “Listen to Antauri and the team.” She held up another. “Two. Always do your best, no matter how much or little your best is.” She held up a third and smiled. “Remember that I believe in you, and that I love you so, so much.”

Chiro grinned up at her, eyes closed, and she smiled. He was a good kid. He really was.

Amber turned to Jinmay then, who was standing at the door pointedly not looking at the two of them. “Jinmay?”

“Hm?” She turned around.

“Good luck, and have fun tonight. You should try strawberry, that’s my favorite ice cream flavor!”

“Oh, yeah, since your favorite color is pink, you might like that!” Chiro interjected.

Jinmay giggled. “Sounds good.”

She hesitated still, and Amber tilted her head. “What’s the matter?”

She bowed her head, looking almost ashamed. “You and Chiro look really close… and I don’t want to bother you or anything, but maybe… do you think I could… also have a hug?”

Amber’s breath whooshed out of her lungs in one relieved exhale. “Oh, stars, Jinmay, if you want one, of course you can have one.”

Jinmay stepped up to her and wrapped her arms solidly around Amber’s waist, burying her face in her shoulder just like Chiro had done before. She was trembling a little in her arms and Amber sighed. She ran a hand over her head, and her hair felt very smooth and cool beneath her touch. “You okay?”

“This feels really nice,” the girl mumbled from within her arms.

_Holy Shuggazoom._

If Chiro didn’t start dating this girl, she was just going to adopt her, and that was going to be that.

“You smell like chocolate,” Jinmay said, taking a deep breath against her shirt.

Amber smiled. “So do you. You ate half the batch.” The two girls giggled together for a moment. “And I did want to thank you, Jinmay… thank you for being Chiro’s friend.”

“Y… your welcome,” Jinmay whispered back.

They let go of each other and Amber escorted the two teens back out onto her porch. “Wait, Jinmay, I almost forgot,” Chiro said.

“Forgot what?” she asked.

“Now that you’re in on the secret, you can’t tell anyone, okay?”

"Secret?”

Amber grinned. “The secret is that Chiro has a sister. Shh.” She held a finger to her lips. “We figured it would keep me safe if nobody knows.”

“Of course I won’t tell anyone, I promise,” Jinmay said, placing her hand solemnly on her chest.

They descended the stairs and made their way back down the sidewalk toward the road. Chiro looked back one more time at his sister. He waved, and she waved back. Finally, she shut the door with a click of finality. She leaned against it and sighed.

“Sakko, where have you been? I’ve been worried about you. Here, I saved you a cookie.” Amber smiled as the faint sound of Chiro and Jinmay’s laughter reached her ears.

* * * * * *

Later that night, Amber snuggled up with her favorite blankets and the first volume of her manga. It was a new story by a talented writer and artist that she’d been looking forward to ever since she saw the preview months ago. It was called _Connected Hearts,_ and it was about a special boy named Sol who could wield a giant key like a sword. He traveled all over the universe with his best friends, a knight and a mage, and they saved all the worlds from the encroaching darkness. They met many friends, many characters, along the way, and though Sol was Amber’s favorite, King Michael Mouse was a close second.

~ _Bzzt bzzt bzzt bzzt bzzt~_

Oh, shoot, that was her HVS, where’d it go?

She scrabbled around in her sheets for the blinking sphere and finally found it half wedged under her pillow. She pressed the tiny button at its center and within a moment, it split apart and the projector spit out a floating image.

“Hey, buddy,” she said. “Glad to hear from you. How was ice cream with Jinmay?”

“Ice cream went great.” He sighed. “Then we got attacked by Formless in City Center.”

“Yeah, I saw that on the news. Good job on that, by the way. Could have used a tiny bit less showboating, though,” she teased.

“Holy Shuggazoom, you saw that?” he wheezed, his ears turning hot pink.

“Okay, the camera guy didn’t catch a lot of you in particular, it was mostly Otto and Nova that I saw, but that’s like the… the vibe I got from you.”

“Oh my god,” he wheezed.

“You’re a little showoff, you know that, right?”

“Amber,” he moaned, putting his face in his hands. “Sis, please.”

“Okay, okay,” she relented. “I wouldn’t be your big sister if I didn’t heckle you for all the embarrassing things you do.”

He rubbed his hands over his face and pulled at his bangs. “You thought it was embarrassing?”

“Okay, no, I thought it was cute, and I’m sure Jinmay also thought it was cute.”

At the mention of Jinmay’s name, his expression dropped, he grabbed for a pillow and flipped over to lay on his stomach. “I thought it was all fine, but it didn’t end so well.”

“What didn’t end well?”

“The day.” He sighed and buried his face in it. A far as his sister could tell, with the limited view the HVS camera provided, he was still in his regular clothes so late at night. _Hmm._ “Jinmay turned out to be a spy.”

Amber was not expecting that. “Wait, what?”

Chiro leaned his chin on his elbow and looked at his sister. “You know, Jinmay’s pet monkey, Sakko?”

Amber thought for a second. “I didn’t know she had a pet monkey—she didn’t have one when she was over here.”

It was Chiro’s turn to think. “Oh, right. We found Sakko on the sidewalk outside the house ‘cause he’d gotten lost.” He sighed through his teeth. “It’s just as well that he didn’t meet you.”

Amber raised a questioning eyebrow. “Why would that have made a difference?”

Chiro heaved another sigh and rolled over onto his back, still clutching his pillow to his stomach. “Okay, so it happened like this. After we got rid of all the Formless, Antauri caught me and dragged me back to the Robot. And since I was already there, I thought it would be cool to have Jinmay and Sakko meet the Monkey Team. Gibson was kind of mad, and everyone else kind of freaked out, but I think they warmed up pretty quick. The only thing was, was that Jinmay couldn’t understand anything they were saying.”

“Oh yeah, the only reason you can understand them is because of your Power Primate power.”

“Right. I’d already been working on it for a bit, but I showed her the Monkey Translator, and she loved it.” He grinned. “I also made her a little wind up toy monkey from some wood scrap I had left over, and she loved that too.” He closed his eyes and his mouth twisted. “Anyway, after she left, Gibson went through the cameras and discovered that Sakko had tripped one of the Super Robot’s silent alarms. He’d gone to a hallway backup terminal and hacked into and downloaded the Super Robot’s battle specs.”

“Wait, I thought Otto’s anti-hacker software was pretty good at keeping out that sort of thing?”

“That’s what I thought too, Sakko must have been pretty skilled, which is really worrying.”

“Ooooh, yeah. That’s really not good.”

“It’s not good, no. But I managed to catch Jinmay out by the field by the docking pad… and I confronted her.”

“You confronted her?”

“I changed into Hyper Mode and went outside to find her. She was sort of walking and dancing in the moonlight, and she seemed really happy, and it was so cute.” He blushed. “I walked up to her, and I was serious, you could see it in my face, and I think I scared her a little. And then I called her attitude and act, and called Sakko a spy, and she got so upset.”

“Oh, you _think_ she got upset?” Amber frowned. “Whod’ve thunk. What did you say to her exactly to make her react like that?”

Chiro groaned and put his pillow on top of his face again. Apparently, this story was not one he was fond of reliving. He mumbled into the fabric.

“Chiro, I don’t speak pillow.”

He groaned again and sat up, hugging the pillow in his lap. “Jinmay said that I scared Sakko, and I told her that ‘he deserved it, the little spy!’ Then Jinmay said, “Spy, what are you talking about?’ And I said, ‘Oh yeah, that’s good, little miss innocent, nice act.’ Then Jinmay asked why I was being so mean, and I told her I didn’t like being lied to by my friends. Then Jinmay started crying and she said she wasn’t lying to me and she didn’t like the game I was playing. But it wasn’t a game.” He put his chin in his hands again. “It’s not a game, it’s real, we really had plans stolen… ugh. Jinmay’s never going to want to talk to me ever again. I keep playing that conversation over and over in my head and every time it just sounds awful… I don’t know what to do now.”

Amber laced her fingers together thoughtfully. “Okay Chiro, first of all, there were several ways you could have been a little more… tactful about how you approached this situation. But I don’t necessarily blame you either. That was bad, those battle specs could be used against you guys, can’t they?”

“Yeah, they can… Otto said they can be used to pinpoint the Robot’s weak spots.”

“Yeah, not good.” She scratched the back of her head. “But hear me out, Chiro… I don’t necessarily blame Jinmay for what Sakko did, either.”

“She brought—!”

“Chiro, listen,” Amber said sharply. She took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. “Did Jinmay ever give any indication that she was in any way to blame for this?”

“Well, no… but I think she’s just a great actress and she had it out for me the whole time,” he shot back.

“But what if she didn’t?” she retorted. “I know this isn’t the evidence you were looking for… but when she was here, she asked… she asked for a hug.”

“Yeah, I was there.”

“I really don’t think… that anyone who was consciously planning on stealing from you would have asked me to hug them.”

Chiro raised an eyebrow skeptically.

Amber sighed. “Okay, then, how about this. If Jinmay really was just using you to get into the Super Robot and steal something from you, I would think that she really wouldn’t have wanted to hang out with you. She would have been more passive-aggressive or frustrated or impatient and insisted on going to the Super Robot sooner. But she hung out with you all day, she genuinely seemed to enjoy your company—it wasn’t even her idea to have her go inside the Super Robot.”

“Yeah, it was mine.” Chiro sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. “Maybe I was a little blinded… but I think she was actually having a good time.”

“Maybe you jumped to conclusions, maybe you didn’t,” Amber said slowly. “But you know what you have to do now, right?

“Get those plans back from that _sneak_ thief.”

“Okay, good, yeah, that, but don’t you have something that you need to do with Jinmay?”

Chiro sighed. “Apologize to her?” He looked up at his sister through his lashes.

“Yes, you need to do that, first.” Amber sat up on her bed and crossed her legs under her blankets and began to count on her fingers. “Okay so there’s only two possibilities. One, that Jinmay was working with Sakko, in which case going to apologize to her is going to get you close enough to get your plans back. Or two, she had no idea what was happening and Sakko was using her, in which case going to apologize her is going to get you close enough to get your plans back _and_ you’ll be able to help her.”

Chiro’s mouth twisted in thought.

“I wouldn’t worry so much as to how you reacted and focus more on how you’re going to fix everything. You’re a hero, you’re here to help people. Help the Monkeys by getting those specs back and help Jinmay by telling her you’re sorry for how you acted. You might have made a mistake. It’s okay. You’re going to be able to make everything all right. I promise.”

Chiro sighed and smiled a little. “Thanks, sis, for the advice. I feel a little less awful now.”

Amber grinned. “What are big sisters for?”

Chiro’s expression dropped and he groaned. “That reminds me. Antauri and Gibson and everyone are upset with me for keeping Jinmay a secret.”

“A secret?”

“Yeah, I blew off pilot training, Antauri’s tactics lesson, and helping Gibson rewire the main consoles to hang out with Jinmay.”

Amber groaned and rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. “Chiro, you know better than that…”

“I thought they wouldn’t understand, so I didn’t tell them.”

Amber rubbed her temple, brows furrowed. “Chiro…”

“I know, I know! The point is, I feel guilty for keeping Jinmay a secret, but you know what I’ve kept a secret for a lot longer than a day?”

Amber looked up at him. “Me.”

Chiro nodded.

“So, are you going to tell them?”

“No! Yes. Maybe. No. No, I can’t.” Chiro was wringing his pillow like it was a wet washcloth. “The whole point of keeping you a secret from the Monkeys is so that you don’t become Skeleton King’s target. He comes after us all the time. If the Monkeys knew, if you became associated with the Hyperforce, he’d probably start going after you, too! I… I can’t put you in that kind of danger! I wouldn’t be able to stand it if he got his cold, slimy, undead hands on you!”

“Like Sun Riders episode 11, that one with those twins where one got kidnapped by the mafia boss and the other had to try and save him…” Amber said quietly.

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking of, but its _worse_ than that.” Chiro put his head in his hands. “And there’s even more… I feel awful for ditching the Monkeys, too. When the Formless attacked today, I was so busy with Jinmay that my team had to fight without me and I had to rush in at the last second and make sure nothing bad happened to them.”

“I think they had it well in hand, Chiro,” Amber said, trying to comfort him.

“Still, I wasn’t there for them when they needed me.” He looked up at her. “Do you think they’ll forgive me?”

“Chiro, the Monkeys really care about you; you’d have to do something really terrible to make them completely unable to forgive you. Just like with Jinmay, say you’re sorry and see what they say, and I will be very surprised if they don’t forgive you. They’re not going to give up on you _that_ easily.”

“All right. Thanks.” He closed his eyes and sighed. “I’ve got some stuff to think about, so I think I’m going to let you go for now.”

“Okay, no problem.” She smiled. “See you soon. I love you.”

“Love you too.”

The worry in his eyes was the last thing she saw as the HVS powered down. She drew her knees up to her chin and watched as the two halves of the sphere stuck back together with a faint _click_.

Antauri didn’t want any secrets, huh?

If Chiro got all his other problems worked out soon, then maybe they could rethink their plan. She put the HVS on her dresser and pressed her head into her pillow. That was a problem for tomorrow Amber. She closed her eyes and soon drifted to sleep to the sound of the rain outside her window.

* * * * * *

It seemed as though Amber had just barely gone to sleep when she was suddenly awakened by the sound of huge, crushing footsteps.

 _Robots,_ Amber thought grumpily as she sat up and rubbed her eyes. When you lived in Shuggazoom City, you learned really quickly what giant robot footsteps sounded like.

Amber got out of bed and padded down the stairs into the kitchen. She swiped her messy bangs out of her eyes, got herself a glass of water, and took a bleary look out the full-length window. _Is it the Super Robot? No, I think the servos sound different? A little more hissy and less thunk?_ The sound of the footsteps was fading, but Amber managed to catch of a glimpse of the offending mecha heading back toward the Industrial Sector.

It was humanoid, which was normal.

It was green, which was an odd color for a super robot.

It… had pink pigtails?

Amber’s mouth dropped open _. Jinmay?_ She closed her jaw with a click. _That’s it. I’m dreaming._ She swigged the rest of her glass of water, put the glass in the sink, and climbed back up the stairs and back into bed _. I’m so anxious about Chiro I’m having nightmares about his friend turning into a giant robot. That’s great._ She smushed her pillow over her head to block out the crash, smash, and shatter of buildings breaking across the city. She thought she’d never get to sleep, but must have somehow, because the next thing she knew, she was awoken again, this time by a _knock-knock-knock_ on the front door.

 _What? Why?_ She pressed her pillow into her face and whined.

_Knock-knock-knock._

Okay, so she wasn’t dreaming _that_.

She tossed her pillow aside, sat up and rubbed her eyes for a second, trying to get all the sleep out of them. Her eyes closed and she dozed for half a second before the knocking on her door began again _._ She jerked up out of her haze, more awake than before.

She put her robe and some socks on and tried to frantically brush her hair quickly but all it was doing was tangling and she wasn’t in the mood to deal with it. _Argh_. She gave up, tied it in a ponytail and resolved to do something about it later.

_Knock-knock-knock._

She yanked her bedroom door open and descended the stairs. “Coming!” The knocking stopped abruptly and Amber took a breath before peeking through the peephole.

Pink pigtails.

_Stars have mercy._

She opened the door and true enough, it was Jinmay on her porch. The girl looked up at Amber and smiled nervously.

Amber rubbed her eyes and leaned on the doorframe. “Jinmay? I had a dream that you were a giant killer robot.”

“That wasn’t a dream,” Jinmay said, swinging her leg nervously. “That actually happened.”

Amber’s eyebrows flew up. “I’m sorry, what?”

“It’s kind of a long story.” Amber’s mouth dropped open but she closed it again as Jinmay continued to talk. “You said that I could come here if I ever needed anything, right?” Amber nodded. “Well, I was hoping maybe I could have something to eat before I go? And I’ll tell you all about what happened last night because it was crazy.”

“I believe it.” Amber sucked in a breath and released it in a sigh. “Okay. Come on in.”

She stifled a yawn as she led her to the kitchen. Jinmay sat down at the kitchen counter while Amber rifled in the cabinet for something to eat. “Jinmay, you are a robot?”

Jinmay nodded.

“You didn’t mention that at any point when Chiro brought you over yesterday.”

Jinmay laced her fingers together in a prayer. “I know it might sound weird, but I didn’t know. I did tell you that I didn’t know anything from before I came to Shuggazoom? It turns out that I didn’t even know anything about myself. I didn’t know I was a robot. I’m sorry, I… I wasn’t trying to deceive you or anything…”

Amber’s frustration melted into concern. Jinmay had been through something, that was for sure. Although all the pieces that she was being given didn’t really match together to make up the full picture. Hopefully the girl could fill in the gaps for her.

Her attention was caught by a snuffling sound.

Jinmay was crying.

Oh, that wouldn’t do at all.

“Jinmay?” Amber crossed the floor and knelt down to her eye height. “Jinmay, look at me.” She handed her a paper towel. “Jinmay, I’m not upset at you, I promise, I just don’t understand. But you’re gonna tell me, right, you’re gonna tell me the whole story so I can understand?”

Jinmay nodded and snuffled thickly into the paper towel, tears squeezing out of her eyes and running down her pink cheeks.

Amber got down on her knees and straightened up more comfortably. “Jinmay, Chiro called me last night, and told me that something had happened with Sakko, and that he had gone out in front of the docking port and yelled at you, and that that had made you upset. And I talked with him a bit, and I think he got it all worked out in his head, but I think something happened a little different than anyone expected, right?”

“Ch-chiro talked to you?” she snuffled as she blew her nose.

“He did, he told me about how Sakko had stolen the Super Robot’s battle specs, and how he’d gotten mad at you, and about how he felt guilty about making you upset and ditching the Monkeys, and about a bunch of other things, too. He felt so bad about what he did but he was so scared.” Jinmay rubbed at her cheeks and Amber handed her another paper towel. “Another thing, Jinmay, I didn’t mean to make you upset by asking you if you really were a robot. I only asked because you asked for food, and I wanted to know if you really could eat even though you’re a robot. You ate a lot of my cookies when you were here yesterday.”

“Was it yesterday?” Jinmay sighed, her breath trembling. “It seems so long ago. Yes, I can eat. I’m actually kind of hungry.”

“You must be a very special kind of android if you _can_ eat,” Amber said softly.

Jinmay smiled back at her.

“Do you want anything in particular to eat?”

“Anything, Amber, whatever you have, I’m already intruding…”

“Okay, you are a little, but I did say I would help you if you needed help, and you need help now, and I’m helping.” Amber patted her head and smoothed over the cool strands. “It’s okay. Don’t worry.” Amber continued to pet the robot girl as she thought and Jinmay started to giggle. “How about… pancakes? Would you like pancakes?”

“I’d love pancakes.”

“All right, let’s go with that, then.” Amber stood up and stretched, rolling her shoulders and flipping her long, tangled ponytail out of her way. She searched through the cupboard again and found her box of pancake mix. “Tell me everything that happened last night.”

Jinmay sighed and put her elbows on the counter, plopping her cheeks in her fists. “You know Sakko did steal the Super Robot’s battle specs?”

Amber opened the fridge and took out a gallon of milk. “Yep, Chiro told me about that.”

“Sakko was… was actually working for Skeleton King.”

Amber poured a couple of cups of milk into the pancake bowl and put the milk back into the fridge. “ _There’s_ a big surprise. I’m _so_ surprised, I never ever _ever_ would have seen that coming, _ever_ , at all.” Jinmay tilted her head at her and Amber laughed. “I’m not really surpised; it seems that almost _every_ time when there’s trouble with the Hyperforce it’s Skeleton King’s fault.”

Jinmay nodded as Amber started whisking the batter. “Well, I took Sakko and left the Super Robot… and I didn’t have any idea he’d done anything bad! So when Chiro came out and yelled at us and called me a spy and a thief, that hurt my feelings a lot. I didn’t know what to say to him other than that he _had_ hurt my feelings, and I ran away back to where Sakko and I were staying. I sat by myself for a little bit, trying to figure out why Chiro had said what he did. Sakko never came to cuddle with me, like he usually did, and I got curious where he was, so I went to look for him. Then I passed in front of the door that was usually kept locked, and I never knew what was in there, but I heard a weird voice coming from inside. I opened the door… and it was Sakko talking! I didn’t hear anything he was saying or who he was talking to—I was more shocked by the fact that he _could_ talk!”

“Bet that was a big surprise. I’d be surprised too,” Amber said. She took out a big frying pan and a cookie cutter and began pouring the batter into the hot pan.

“Sakko told me to come in, and I didn’t know what to do, but my legs ended up taking me into the room. The door snapped closed behind me, and Sakko strapped me to a table!” Jinmay continued “I was so scared, I’d never been so scared before! Then he popped open my heart hatch—” she gestured to the pink heart on the front of her jumper “—and then he did some sort of projection with his eye, and suddenly Skeleton King was standing there. I was terrified!”

“I bet you were…” Amber mumbled over her hot pan as she continued to flip and plate the pancakes.

“He said he had pulled me from space and wiped my memory, and he was going to use me to destroy Chiro. I said that I liked Chiro, and Skeleton King said that Chiro didn’t like me because I’m a robot,” Jinmay said.

“I guess that’s why you don’t remember anything!” Amber said. “And I don’t want you to believe what Skeleton King said for one second. Chiro loves robots, and I can safely tell you that because I’d like to think that I know him better than anyone. Did you know the Monkey Team are part robot? I’m not sure how much is robot and how much is monkey, but the point still stands.” She slid a plate bearing a stack of four heart-shaped pancakes down the counter and Jinmay caught it.

The girl gasped. “Heart shapes?”

Amber smiled gently. “I’d like to say that you’re a girl with a lot of heart, Jinmay. Eat up and finish your story. I’m still curious about the part where you became a giant killer robot.”

“I’m getting there.” Jinmay reached across the counter for syrup and Amber handed it to her as she began pouring more batter to make pancakes for herself. After a few bites, Jinmay continued her story.

“I thought what Skeleton King said was weird too… Then Sakko shoved a data cable in the back of my head.” She moved her pigtail to reveal a cable socket. “Pictures of the Super Robot began to flash in front of my eyes, and Sakko was pulling out wires inside my stomach, and everything hurt so much but I couldn’t move.” She took another huge bite and chewed it slowly. “The last thing I remember is Skeleton King’s awful laughter echoing in my head.” She shuddered.

Amber plated her own breakfast, turned off the stove, and pulled up another stool next to Jinmay. She poured syrup on her own pancakes and started to eat as she listened to the remainder of Jinmay’s story.

“The next thing I remember is Chiro’s voice, reminding me of all the fun things we did together. He said… he thought there was something between us.”

Amber swallowed her pancake and looked at Jinmay, raising an eyebrow. “For the record, I definitely thought there was something between you two.”

Jinmay blushed to the roots of her hair.

“That’s neither here nor there though,” Amber said nonchalantly as she cut her pancakes up. “Then what happened? Did you kind of snap out of it?”

Jinmay nodded. “Yeah, at that point I kind of woke up. I didn’t want to hurt Chiro, but my arm grabbed him anyway. He screamed, I was crushing him, but I couldn’t make my hand or arm move! Sakko was controlling me.”

Amber’s eyes grew wide and Jinmay waved her hands apologetically. “No, no, it was okay. One of the Super Robot’s feet shot down his little control ship and then I felt like I could breathe and move on my own again.”

Amber breathed a sigh of relief. “Sakko must have reprogrammed you a bit… and downloaded the specs he stole into your memory.”

Jinmay nodded and shoved her last forkful of pancakes into her mouth.

“How did you get to be Super Robot sized, though? Is that something that Sakko did to you? Or something that you can do on your own? It wasn’t a mecha suit, though, right, it was fully you?”

“Yeah, it was me, it was all me.” Jinmay pushed away her empty plate. “I told you I don’t remember anything about myself, right? So I don’t know for sure if that’s something that I can do on my own or if Sakko programmed me to do it.” She put her chin in her hand. “The mecha form didn’t feel… unnatural or wrong, and I didn’t have a hard time moving or anything after Sakko had lost control of me… so if I had to guess, I’d think it was something I’d done before. Maybe it’s something that I was made to be able to do.”

Amber absorbed this. “Okay. How did you change back to regular size again, though?”

Jinmay exhaled a huffy laugh. “Honestly, my processers were running so loud in my head and my fans were going so fast and I felt so overwhelmed and I didn’t know what to do or how to make anything stop. But Chiro talked to me, just kept talking and talking to me, and I focused on his voice, and I found myself gaining more control over my form. I wanted to go back to normal, back to normal size, and I concentrated on that wish, and after what seemed like a long time, I found the world getting larger and larger around me. I looked up, and Chiro was there looking down at me, offering a hand to help me up off the ground.”

Amber smiled and stacked her empty plate on top of Jinmay’s. “Chiro had to talk you down?”

“That’s a good way of putting it, I guess,” Jinmay sighed. “I don’t know, it was all just so overwhelming, everything was so loud and awful and I was so scared… but his voice helped me calm down and concentrate.”

“I believe it.” Amber took their two plates and began rinsing them in the sink. “So what are you going to do now?”

“I think I’m going to leave Shuggazoom for a while,” Jinmay said, pressing both her hands to her chest. “I told Chiro that I needed to go on my own journey, to find out where I came from.”

“Are you going to be okay going out on your own?” Amber asked, turning off the water and drying her hands on a dishtowel. “I think it’s a good idea, to try and go out and find out about yourself, since Skeleton King took away all your memories… but are you going to be all right?”

Jinmay waved her hand. “I’ll be fine, I don’t need a lot, and I’ll be okay by myself.”

“Well, if you need any help at all, call the Super Robot,” Amber said, retying her robe sash and putting her hand on her hip. “If there’s anything Chiro and the Monkeys can do, they’ll help, and if Chiro can’t do anything, he’ll let me know.”

“That’s… so nice of you, Amber…” Jinmay said softly.

Amber dug her fingers into her robe sash. “Until you find your family, or whatever you have, Chiro and I are going to be here for you, okay?”

“Thank you,” Jinmay whispered.

Amber stretched and cracked her knuckles. “Okay, then, let’s figure out what you need to take with you.”

“Amber, you don’t…”

“Hush and let me at least get you some food or something.” Amber knelt down and dug under the counter. “Granted I don’t know anything about the nutritional needs of androids— do you need more iron, Jinmay? Huh, maybe not.” She put out a hand of granola bars on the counter. “Here, I’m just going to give you a little package like I would make for Chiro.”

Twenty minutes later she had a paper package wrapped up with twine sitting on the counter in front of Jinmay. “Thank you, Amber, this is so sweet…”

“Well, travelling all over the known universe might work up your appetite, right?”

Jinmay giggled and picked up the paper pack. “You’re right.”

Amber walked her back to the front door and unlocked it. “Please be careful out there, Jinmay. Skeleton King aside, there’s so many dangers in the galaxy. Not just monsters, but also people… people who might not have the best intentions.”

“I know, Amber, I’ll keep an eye out.”

“Okay.” Amber folded her arms and let out a sigh. “We’re here for you, Jinmay, Chiro and I both. We won’t forget about you—make sure you don’t forget about us.”

Jinmay shook her head. “No way! I couldn’t!” Amber smiled and opened the door and the robot girl stepped out on the porch. “I won’t say goodbye. I didn’t say goodbye to Chiro, and I won’t say goodbye to you, either.”

“See you soon, then,” Amber said, holding out a hand.

Jinmay took it, her smooth, cool fingers sliding into hers. “See you soon, Amber. And thank you so much, for everything… for breakfast, and for this,” she held up the paper package, “and for listening to me.”

“You’re welcome, Jinmay.” She squeezed her hand for a second before letting it go. “It’ll be all right. I believe in you.”

Jinmay smiled once more, turned, fired up her rockets, and waved once before disappearing over the horizon. Amber waved until the girl was a green dot in the atmosphere. She smiled as she closed the front door with a soft click.

Looks like everything had turned out all right then. Thank goodness. So Sakko was to blame for the whole mess, huh? Guess looks weren’t everything after all. Amber felt very relieved that nothing that had happened was Jinmay’s fault—after she spent so much time trying to convince Chiro that she could have been innocent, she didn’t want to be wrong about it! And even without Chiro’s input… she had started to like Jinmay, and it would have been awful if that sweet girl had been evil all along. She shook her head. It had all worked out.

Now if only Chiro’s other problem would solve itself so conveniently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Amber and Jinmay stuff was so fun for me to write! I always thought Jinmay could use someone to talk to, especially to work through all the scary things that just happened to her! And of course Amber is the listening ear for Chiro as well, to help him figure out his problem with Jinmay (since the monkeys weren't too helpful in that regard lol) The Jinmay problem got all wrapped up nice, now there's this new problem with this secret he has...
> 
> If you have questions or anything you can head over to my tumblr at[ sweetcircuits!](https://sweetcircuits.tumblr.com) I'm always excited to scream about this AU, I have a lot of good things planned for it :D


	2. in which Amber dreams of robot monkeys and certain powers are revealed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a VERY LONG but very important chapter-a lot of things happen here! Amber takes it on herself to help Chiro resolve his problem, the guilt he's feeling over keeping her a secret from his team... and there is a lot of fallout from that decision. Some bad, but a lot of good also!
> 
> This is an in-between chapter that happens between E1: _Chiro's Girl_ and E2: _Depths of Fear_ , about a week after Jinmay leaves.

_~a week later~~_

Five days a week, Amber worked at _Shuggazoom Sweets_ , Shuggazoom City’s candy store. It was owned by Mrs. Audrey Hanna, a sweet older lady, about 60-ish years old. Amber had been working there for years, longer than she’d like to admit, and she knew most of the ins and outs of the business: stocking, displays, counting currency, the POS system, customer courtesy, advertising, everything basically except actually making the candy. Mrs. Hanna mostly took care of that herself.

Amber set the box of chewy roll lollipops on the stocking table next to the display and began to arrange them neatly. She put the biggest lollipops in the back and the smaller ones in the front and organized them symmetrically by color.

It was a pretty normal day—or as normal as things ever got in Shuggazoom City. There hadn’t been any attacks of any kind over the past couple of days. No Formless, no robots—giant or otherwise—no monsters, no nothing.

It was weird, kind of unnerving and almost… _boring_.

She finished filling the display and moved on to the color changing lollipops in the next one. She sighed, her mouth twisting as her mind raced miles away. She really hoped that Chiro was all right. The Super Robot was currently sitting at its docking port on the edge of the Industrial District; it hadn’t moved all week. She was pretty sure Chiro had to be there; he probably wouldn’t be anywhere else. She hadn’t even seen him around town running errands or at the arcade or anything. She’d seen the Monkey Team around, probably on patrol or running errands, but not her brother. She figured that the Monkeys were just really busy training him. Maybe.

She rubbed her temple. Her bond had been acting strange lately and she had a headache to boot.

See, she and Chiro shared a very special bond. She’d researched it extensively as a young teen and as far as she could tell, it was an empathy bond. Each of them could feel physically when the other was injured, and could also sense the other’s feelings, when they felt them strongly. This bond was affected by distance, she’d discovered, because she couldn’t sense him as easily after he’d moved way across the City into the Super Robot.

But she was sensing something strongly now, and she wasn’t sure what was going on.

Her head throbbed and she pressed the heel of her hand against her eye to try and relieve some of the pressure. It helped for a moment, but the ache came back almost twice as bad as before. She whined in the back of her throat and knelt down in the aisle, rubbing her temples.

What was happening to her? She never got migraines, and she wasn’t sure if that was what this was, anyway.

She took a slow, deep inhale, and let it out again. The pain didn’t lessen nor increase but stayed constant. She pressed both of her wrists against her temples and something in her mind flickered, like the static of an old television.

_Aargh…_

The static hissed for a few more minutes, and the sounds of the candy shop began to fade out in favor of a faint whirring sound. The static in her mind pixilated, replaced by a dark green fog that cleared slowly, revealing her brother standing, in his Hyper Form, on a green platform that floated alone in the midst of a black starry sky.

“What’s the _point_ of this, Antauri?” Chiro shouted into empty space.

“You must learn to trust the Power Primate,” a deep voice echoed. “Let it guide you, and I know you will find your way out.” With those words, green walls began to form around Chiro until he was trapped in the heart of a labyrinth.

The boy groaned. He tried first left, then right, then right again, but every way was a dead end. He tried again and again until in his frustration he drove his fist against one of the walls. The green wall rippled but did not shatter.

The voice rang out again. “Chiro, you are not focused. Let go of everything else. Trust yourself, trust in the Power Primate, and you will find the correct path.”

Chiro gritted his teeth. “I can’t do it, Antauri. I tried and I can’t figure it out. End training program.” The green walls and black sky dissolved around him, revealing a tall blue room. He straightened up, tapped the comm attached to his shirt, and his Hyper Form disappeared, replaced with his normal red cardigan and jeans. “How can you expect me to focus, when… when…” He clenched his fists. “Never mind.” He turned on his heel and ran toward an orange tube that stood against the wall at the side of the room. It hissed and moved downward quickly, carrying him with it.

A black Robot Monkey levitated into Amber’s field of vision and sighed. “Oh, Chiro, what could be troubling you?” he muttered to himself.

The vision began to fade out, and the soft music of the store’s playlist seeped back into her ears, along with a voice calling her name.

Amber cracked open her eyes and found that she was sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of the color-changing lollipop display. “Mrs. H?”

“Amber, dear, are you all right?” Mrs. Hanna was leaning on the display, bending over to look at her. “You didn’t answer when I called for you and I found you here sitting on the floor looking like you’re going to be sick…”

Amber’s vision slowly cleared and she laid her palm across her forehead. The headache was gone, but she still felt a little woozy and unsettled. “I think I’m fine… but is it okay if I take my break now? I think… I think I need to sit down.”

Mrs. Hanna nodded. “Of course, dear. I can handle it out here for a while.”

Amber got up off the floor, the sudden change in altitude making her temples ache again.

Mrs. Hanna looked at the girl with concern. “You don’t look well. Maybe I should send you home early so you can get some rest.”

Amber shook her head. “No! No, I’m okay. I’m not sick or anything, honest. I… I’ll be better after I sit down for a little while.”

“All right.” Mrs. Hanna shook her head. “Go sit down and eat a bite of something and I’ll clock you out for your break.”

Amber groaned as she pushed open the ‘Staff Only’ door. She plopped down on the couch in the breakroom and massaged her temples some more. Had she really had a vision? That was new. Was it a vision of the past, present, or future? How? Why? This had never happened before, and as far as she knew, visions were not… not a normal aspect of empathy bonds. She sighed, letting her body relax into the soft cushions. Something else wiggled on the edge of her mind. She concentrated, trying to think around the solid ache in her temples, and touched a feeling… a deep, deep feeling… of guilt.

Chiro was feeling guilty.

It wasn’t too difficult to figure out why that was.

But did that have anything to do with the vision?

 _Oh!_ She sat up bolt straight, eyes widening. That monkey… that black monkey that she’d seen at… at the end of it. He’d spoken. He’d spoken and she’d _understood_.

Her heart pounded faster. Why? How could she understand him? Chiro had said they were monkeys with cybernetic parts. If they were really just monkeys… then there was no reason she should be able to understand their voices. There was a species gap, a language barrier between them. She shouldn’t be able to understand. And the fact that she could scared her just a little.

This was new and worrying. She was suddenly able to see Chiro in her mind’s eye, and also she was apparently able to understand monkey speak. She bit her lip. She had to talk to him, ask him about what had happened.

Amber got up and fished in her purse hanging on the coat stand. Her fingers closed around her HVS. Would he even be willing to talk to her? It was a risk. He’d been getting very upset and short with her during their nightly calls…

It would be okay. The worst thing that would happen is that he wouldn’t answer, and she would call him back tonight when he was going to bed. She took a deep breath and sat back down on the couch, pressing the button in the center of the sphere. It vibrated in her palm for almost an entire minute, her racing heart almost beating in time with the sound. At last it opened and began to project, and Chiro’s face appeared before her.

“Amber! What are you doing, calling me in the middle of the afternoon?” Chiro hissed, his voice tight with frustration. “You’re lucky I happened to be in my room when you called!”

“You blew up during Antauri’s training, didn’t you?” She covered her mouth. _Oh, Shuggazoom._ She hadn’t meant to be that direct with him.

“How could you possibly know about that?” Chiro’s eyes narrowed.

Amber removed her hand from her mouth and sighed. “Okay, that’s the weird thing. I think I had a vision, I saw…”

“And why do you care? It’s not any of your business, really.”

She blew out a breath. Okay. This wasn’t going to be a cool, rational conversation, then. She shoved her questions regarding the vision onto the back burner and brought up the more pressing question of what he’d been feeling. “Chiro, I’m worried about you. You’ve been mean not only to me but apparently to the Monkey Team as well.” She wiped her bangs out of her eyes. “Is this all because of the problem with me?”

“You shouldn’t be worried about it,” Chiro said tightly. “It’s my problem, I’ll deal with it.”

“Chiro, we decided together that we should keep that secret,” she reminded him. “If it’s becoming a huge problem, then we should rethink it.”

“No!” he almost shouted. “No, I can’t let anything happen to you. It’s fine. Everything’s fine.”

“Everything’s not fine,” Amber pressed. “You’ve been feeling frustrated, guilty, scared…”

“Don’t tell me how I’m feeling. You don’t know anything! Just… just leave me alone!”

“Chiro, I…”

There were footsteps outside Chiro’s door. He looked over toward it then back at Amber. “I’ve gotta go.” The connection cut out.

Amber sighed and slid lower on the couch. “…I’m sorry,” she whispered. She sighed again. It made her so sad, that he was feeling so angry, so guilty… _Over me,_ she thought. _This is all my fault._ A tear rolled down her cheek as she clenched the HVS hard in her fist.

Naturally, Mrs. Hanna chose that moment to appear.

Amber’s head snapped back up as the door opened, then closed. Mrs. Hanna grabbed an extra apron off of the apron rack and began to tie it on, catching sight of the girl as she did so. Her hands stilled. “Amber!” She finished tying her apron and crossed the room, bending over the girl. “You look so tired, darling, and you’re clearly upset. That’s it, I’m sending you home right now.”

Amber scrubbed at her face with her sleeve. “No, it’s… it’s nothing. Please let me stay. I’m okay, really.”

Mrs. Hanna sat down next to her on the couch. “Something’s bothering you, I can see that. Are you worried about something? Even if you aren’t sick, it would probably do you some good to go home and rest a bit. I can handle it here.”

Amber sat up straight. “But Mrs. H…”

Mrs. Hanna held up an index finger to quiet her. “Now, Amber, I have owned this store for twenty-three years. I’ve run it long before you started working here, and I am certainly capable of functioning for a short while without help.” She smiled. “It is only an hour and a half until closing, and we’re already mostly stocked. The rest can be done tomorrow, and not many customers come in late, anyway.”

Amber felt bad but she was immensely grateful. “Okay, if you really want me to go, I will, but I’m going to come in early on Wednesday to make up for it. Thank you. Thank you so much.”

Mrs. Hanna chuckled. “I would try and convince you otherwise, but when you’ve made up your mind, there’s not much talking you out of it.”

Amber stood up, took her apron off, and slung her purse over her shoulder. “Thank you again.”

“Be careful, darling, there’s no telling what baddies may be lurking in the streets at this hour.”

“I will, I promise.”

Amber ran out the door, clutching her bag to her as she went. She waved at the kids standing in front of the store on her way past. She walked quickly, her strides long, as she made her way from the shopping district back to the residential district.

_I guess it was a present vision instead of one of the past or future—based on Chiro’s reaction to what I said, it must have just happened… ugh, I can’t believe I just jumped right into that with him, there was no salvaging that._

She rubbed her eye. He was angry, and she suspected the temper was a coverup for the guilt, but she didn’t know what to do about that either. This wasn’t healthy, and it wasn’t sustainable, either, since apparently he wasn’t keeping his temper in check around the Monkeys. If they asked him what was going on, his secret was probably going to have to come out in a way he really didn’t want.

She padded up her porch steps and put the house key in the lock. It clicked and she pushed the door open. She dropped her purse on the side table and rolled her shoulders. Her temples still hurt, and she still didn’t know why. And a half an hour later, after eating a snack and drinking some water, they still ached just enough to be distracting and annoying. She groaned.

Amber rubbed her forehead, seriously considering a painkiller and a nap. She had to give Chiro time before she tried to talk with him again. This problem wasn’t going to go away quickly, unfortunately. They had to talk, they had to talk it out, to figure out what to do; the alternative to do nothing was actually hurting him, but he didn’t _want_ to talk to her. _Argh!_

She settled on napping for now and trying to call Chiro again when she woke up.

She flopped down on the couch with a pair of pillows and a blanket and fell asleep quickly.

Her dream was strange, though.

* * *

Gibson crossed his arms. “Why are we having a team meeting without Chiro?” he asked, tail twitching in irritation. “He is an integral part of the team.”

“I think… I think this meeting is about Chiro,” Nova answered, drawing her legs up to sit crosslegged in her big gold pod-chair.

Otto and Sparx looked at each other and shrugged.

Antauri stepped out of his black tube, changing mid-step to his usual floating position, and levitated over to where the other Monkeys were gathered in the center of the main room. “Thank you all for coming; I’m sorry to interrupt your duties,” he said.

“At the risk of repeating myself, where is Chiro?” Gibson asked again.

“I did not ask him to come,” Antauri replied, folding his hands neatly in his lap. “We must talk about him, and as such I did not think it would be prudent for him to be present.”

“Told ya so, Gibson,” Nova said.

Gibson sighed, eyes closed, and shook his head.

“Has anyone else noticed that the kid’s been acting really weird lately?” Sparx ventured. “He did a really sloppy job when he was helping me with Fist Rocket maintenance a couple of days ago. Usually he does a great job, just this time…” The red Monkey grimaced and shook his head.

“And he keeps telling me that he’s too busy to help me with my projects,” Otto said, putting his hand on his hip. “And he’s kinda mean about it, too.”

“He just seems… distracted and upset all the time,” Nova said, sitting up straighter in her pod-chair. “I’m worried about him.”

“What’s the matter with him?” Sparx asked. “He isn’t usually like this. In fact, I don’t think he’s ever acted like this before.”

“Maybe he’s just upset because Jinmay left,” Otto suggested. All the other Monkeys looked at him skeptically. “What?”

Nova put her hand on her cheek. “I don’t think Chiro would be this, well, this angry if he just missed Jinmay. He’d probably mope around for a while, but he’d cheer up eventually.”

“He cannot focus on anything,” Antauri noted. “He couldn’t do the simple training exercise I assigned him today.”

Gibson waved a hand. “He has avoided going on patrol with us. Perhaps he is avoiding something in town?”

“We’ve gotta figure out what’s wrong with the kid,” Sparx said, looking over at Nova. “And fast.”

“If Skeleton King attacks us while we’re all like this…” Otto began.

“…more likely than not, we are done for.” Gibson finished.

“We are all in agreement, then?” Antauri asked “We must figure out why Chiro is acting this way.”

The Monkeys all nodded in agreement.

“Very well. Tomorrow, then.”

* * *

Amber’s nap was short-lived as she woke herself by accidentally rolling off the couch and hitting her elbow on the coffee table. _Ow! Shuggazoom!_

She winced and rubbed her elbow. _What a weird dream_. Although, considering her track record for the day, she was willing to believe that it had been another vision rather than strictly a dream. And if it was really a vision instead of a dream, that meant she had seen something that had truly happened, and _that_ meant… that once again, she had heard and understood Chiro’s monkeys speak.

She sat herself back down on the couch and put her face in her hands. She had been asleep… maybe it was her imagination? But no, she’d heard the black monkey speak in both of her visions, and both times he had spoken with the same calm, deep voice. It made the whole thing even worse, then, because it proved that it wasn’t a fluke or a one-time thing.

Amber thunked the heel of her hand against her forehead one time. Usually all the weird in her life was condensed down to things that happened regarding Chiro. For something like this to happen to _her_ was unusual and scary. A shiver ran through her whole body. _Why is this happening to me?_ _I don’t like this at all._

Her mind turned over the dream as a whole. The Robot Monkeys had talked, and apparently they had decided that they needed to have some kind of disciplinary meeting… and at the very least ask Chiro why he was upset. If the Monkeys did that… there was a high likelihood that it was going to end badly.

She stood up, went back into the kitchen, and dug in the fridge for a proper meal to eat. _Is he going to lie to them? He just keeps avoiding the question… Is he going to argue, or fight them with his powers?_

She put some noodles and sauce and vegetables on a plate and put it in the microwave. Her thoughts swirled around and around just like her food was.

_I have to do something. This is all my fault to begin with. If Chiro can’t decide what he needs to do, I have to help him before it gets out of hand._

The microwave beeped and Amber retrieved her food. She leaned against the counter and began to eat it. _If the Monkeys are going to try and talk to him tomorrow…_ She swallowed a noodle and looked at the oven clock. 7:26. _That doesn’t leave me much time._

She knew what she was going to do. It was reckless, but she was pretty sure it was going to work. It would work, or her brother would never talk to her again.

It was going to work.

* * *

_Brrt-brrt-brrt-brrt-brrt…_

Amber groaned and slapped at the alarm until her finger found the off button. She rolled over again and spent a good minute with her face in her pillow, trying to gather her thoughts. Today was the day of truth.

With a deep sigh she heaved herself out of bed and got dressed, dithering for a second about what she should actually wear. Something fancy? Something comfortable? Something plain? If Chiro just slammed the door in her face then there was no point in wearing something super nice… but on the off-chance he didn’t do that, it probably would be a good idea to make a good impression.

Her school uniform was always a good bet.

She put on the light blue skirt, the white collared shirt, and the blue vest. After a second of looking in the mirror she popped open the top two shirt buttons. She sat back down on her bed with a hairbrush and worked it through her bedhead, thinking hard about how she was going to convince her brother that she wasn’t out of her mind.

Well, she was, but only with worry.

Something had to give, and she didn’t want it to be Chiro.

_He wants me to stay away from him, right?_

As the last of the knots yielded to her brush, she decided to just leave it long the way it was. She pulled a pair of sneakers over her socks and descended the stairs toward the kitchen. The little box of cookies was still there.

She’d made them late last night in a focused anxiety-fueled haze, mixing all her fear and worry into the batter and baking them away. It was a smaller batch than usual, eight cookies, which she thought would be enough for five Robot Monkeys and two teens. If she got that far.

She pressed her wrist to her forehead. _No, don’t think like that. It’s going to be fine. We’re going to fix this. I’m going to fix this._

She ate her cold cereal and put the box of cookies in a plastic bag, tying the handles shut with trembling hands. She passed the hallway mirror on her way to the front door and caught a glimpse of herself. Stars, she looked like she was going to be sick and she hadn’t even gone over there yet.

She put her hands on the foyer table in front of the mirror and took a deep breath, then another. If she was upset and anxious before she even left the house, it would get even worse before she got there. _Calm down. Take a moment. Calm down. Focus. You can’t help Chiro if you’re a mess first._

Her racing heart slowed a bit and her hands stopped trembling quite so much and she looked up at herself in the mirror again. Better.

She was taking her destiny in her own hands, no matter what Chiro said.

She took her bags, locked the door behind her, and began the long walk toward the Super Robot. It was taller than most of the buildings in Shuggazoom City, barring City Center which had buildings that towered over thirty stories. The city itself was huge but not _impossible_ to navigate, as long as you knew where you were going. And Amber did know exactly where she was going—the Super Robot’s docking pad was on the edge of the Industrial District, closest to the Shopping District.

As she walked, she focused on her bond and tapped at the corner of her brother’s mind. They couldn’t quite communicate in sentences, that really wasn’t what their bond did, but they could feel feelings. She was hopeful that he could feel her determination, her worry, her care, through the bond, and he must have got some of that because she in return could feel simmering anger and worry.

_Oh, what am I getting myself into?_

She rounded the edge of a warehouse in the Industrial District and came face-to-foot with Chiro’s Super Robot. She took a deep breath and stared up at it. _Holy Shuggazoom_ _. It’s, uh, a lot bigger than I remember it being. Wow. And it’s so shiny! The Robot Monkeys and Chiro must do a really good job keeping it clean. It looks so nice now!_

She shook her head. Nope, she wasn’t here to fangirl over it, she was here to give her brother a piece of her mind. She was pretty sure he knew she was here, but just to make sure…

Amber cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled as loudly as she could. “Chiro, I know you’re in there!” She raised her fist and began pounding on the sheet metal of the Super Robot’s right foot. “Chiro! Ichiro Louis Rinelli, come out here this minute!”

Frustration, then worry, then anger simmered at the edge of her bond.

Grinning, she knocked louder and shouted again. “Chiro, I’m not going away until you come down and talk to me!” This declaration was followed by silence, but she somehow knew she’d been heard. She sighed, sat down on the ramp, and winced as she rubbed the side of her fist. _Holy Shuggazoom, what’s the Super Robot made of?_

* * *

An alarm rang throughout the Super Robot’s main room. “Someone’s trying to gain access to Foot Crusher Cruiser 6!” Gibson shouted.

Sparx pulled up the outside camera feed. “That’s not a Formless. It’s... it’s a person? Who is that?”

Chiro rushed into the room, his feet hitting the white tile floor even before his elevator had properly stopped. “I heard the alarm. What’s going on?” He skidded to a halt as he registered the unfortunately familiar voice of his sister.

“Chiro, I know you’re in there!” she was yelling.

 _Oh, Shuggazoom._ His sister had come here. This was his worst nightmare. He’d felt something through their bond, a fierce determination, so he figured she was doing something… but why did it have to be _this_? He groaned.

“Who’s that, kid?” Sparx asked, putting his hand on his hip and tilting his head at the boy in question. “One of your adoring fans?”

Chiro waved his arms and stepped in between the Monkeys and the screen. “It’s nothing, really! I’ll take care of it.” He winced as he heard his name again.

“Chiro! Ichiro Louis Rinelli, come out here this minute!”

“I’ll make her go away,” he told Gibson and Sparx.

Nova entered the room from her yellow tube. “What’s going on in here?” Chiro winced, avoided her question, and ran to his orange tube, which he took downward.

“Wait, Chiro’s middle name is Louis?” Sparx asked. Nova and Gibson each shrugged and looked up at the screen.

The girl stopped pounding on the Foot Crusher Cruiser and the alarm stopped. “Chiro, I’m not going away until you come down to talk to me!”

She sat down on the ramp, rubbing her hands, and Gibson zoomed in on her. “That girl looks very familiar,” the blue Monkey observed.

The green tube landed on the main floor as he spoke, and Otto joined the little group, scratching his head. “Wait, I thought we were gonna talk to Chiro today. What’s going on?”

Nova wordlessly pointed at the screen.

“Hey, why’s Chiro sitting outside?” Otto put both hands on the console and stretched up to see the monitor better. “And I’ve never seen him wear that before.”

“He’s not, as that’s not Chiro,” Gibson replied “At least, I don’t believe so. She does bear a remarkable resemblance, though. She has the same blue eyes and black hair as Chiro does, as well as a similar body and facial structure.”

“You think they could be related?” Sparx ventured.

“I suppose it could be possible,” Gibson granted, “but it’s highly unlikely. Chiro would have told us if he had any important relatives.”

The black tube opened and Antauri entered the room.

Otto pointed up at the screen excitedly. “You’ve gotta see this, Antauri. There’s this girl outside that looks just like Chiro!”

Antauri looked up at the screen, brow furrowing. “What a very odd coincidence. Does Chiro know her?”

Nova looked down the length of the console toward the black Monkey. “We don’t know who she is, but she was yelling for Chiro and he just went down to go talk to her, I think.”

“I wonder…” Antauri murmured. He had been feeling something in the Power Primate, something familiar… yet new and distinct. A force similar to Chiro, yet quite different. He’d been able to sense it faintly ever since they had been awakened but had largely ignored it in favor of adjusting to their new situation, with the boy himself as their new leader. The feeling had grown stronger in the past few weeks, however, and right now it was the strongest he’d ever sensed. Perhaps… that feeling was because of her, this young woman on their doorstep. 

* * *

The door hissed open behind Amber and she scrambled to her feet. It was Chiro.

“Chiro…” Amber let out a relieved breath. “I’m so glad you’re o—”

“What do you want, Amber?” Chiro interrupted. You shouldn’t have come here. You’re going to ruin everything!” He made a slashing motion with one arm before curling both hands into fists.

Amber’s brow furrowed. “I’m taking my destiny in my own hands. I’m going to turn myself in.” She moved to get around Chiro.

He moved to block her. “What do you mean?”

“This secret, this secret you’ve been keeping is really hurting you, Chiro,” Amber said, putting one fist on her hip lightly. “And it’s hurting me that you’re so upset and angry. I’m going to talk to the Monkeys, and then we won’t have a secret anymore, and there won’t be a problem.”

“No, you’re not gonna talk to the Monkeys.” Chiro stepped fully out of the Foot Crusher’s doorway and the hatch closed seamlessly behind him. “I’m not going to let you.”

“Chiro, I thought really hard about this, and I think this is the only way that’s going to work for us long-term,” Amber tried to explain. “I can’t keep…”

“I… don’t… CARE!” Chiro shouted angrily, throwing his arm wide. “I’m not going to let you put yourself in danger! I’m not willing to take that chance!”

“Well, I don’t care what you think you’re doing for me!” Amber yelled back, her own fists clenched at her sides. “All I’m trying to do is the right thing!”

“The right thing would be to get out of here and leave me ALONE!” Green lightning was beginning to crackle around Chiro’s body and Amber’s heart began to beat faster.

“No!” she shouted, dropping her bag. “No, I won’t! I’m not going to leave you to face this alone!”

“Get out of here!” Chiro slid forward on his heels and threw a punch at his sister.

Amber’s eyes went wide and she barely dodged it. “CHIRO!”

He no longer was listening. He threw punches and kicks, aiming for her face, her ribs, her legs, trying to back her off the ramp.

Amber’s adrenaline caught up with her, and she aimed a kick of her own at his chest. He backed down quickly. There was another flurry of punches which they both dodged, but there was one she couldn’t avoid in time. One of his punches caught her in the cheek.

His fist bit into her skin, and she fell backwards, but she rolled with the momentum and shoved her own fist upward as hard as she could.

It connected.

_CRACK!_

The world went white, then black, then fuzzy, and finally her eyes started catching up with her brain again. She looked up and saw her brother with his hand pressed to his jaw, eyes wide as saucers, just staring at her.

_What?_

“A… Amber… I… I… y-you…” he whimpered, touching his cheekbone with trembling fingers.

Amber reached up to touch her own cheek and her fingers came away sticky. She rubbed her fingers together, feeling the sticky sensation, and pulled them away slowly to look at them.

Mmmkay, that was blood.

“Amber, I… I didn’t mean…”

“N-n-n-no, Chiro…”

And then something very strange happened, the last thing that Amber expected. All the anger and shock drained out of him, he sat down heavily on the ramp and started to cry.

She got slowly to her feet and made her way over to him. She knelt down next to him and touched his shoulder. “Chiro?”

“Amber!” he wailed. “Amber, I… I didn’t mean to hurt you! I wasn’t trying to hurt you, honest, just try and get you away, b-b-but I… I _h-hit_ you!” He hiccupped and continued to sob. “You’re… _hic_ … you’re bleeding, _oh_ , Amber, I… I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah, _ah…_ ” Amber winced as her own tears ran down into the cut on her cheekbone. That hurt like heck. “Looks like I left a mark on you, too…”

Chiro touched the bruise she left on his chin but shook his head. “No, no, you just did that because I hit you first!” He looked up at her, eyes so full of pain and sadness, and her heart twisted. “Amber, I… I’ve been trying to protect you, trying to protect you by keeping you out of here, away from the Monkeys, away from everything I’m doing… but I hurt you. I’m supposed to _protect_ you but I _hurt_ you instead…”

Amber smiled at him. “You’re just trying to do the right thing… but you know, I think the right thing has changed.”

“Amber, I’ve been so mean to you!” he said, putting his face in his hands. “To you and to everyone… I’ve been so worried… about… about this… that I couldn’t… couldn’t even be a good leader for my team… I’ve been a terrible brother, a terrible friend…”

“Chiro, look at me.” She tilted his chin up so he could look at her. “I understand that you want to protect me, but you shouldn’t have to stay silent about this; you shouldn’t have to keep this secret anymore. You have to make a decision, but I can’t tell you what to do.” She took his hand in hers and rubbed her thumb over the back of it. “The only way for you to make the right decision is to look in here.” She tapped him very gently on the chest

Chiro looked at her for a long, long moment before closing his eyes. He weighed his options. If he chose to keep the secret, he’d have to figure out how to explain what had just happened to his team—he was pretty sure they’d seen it all on the cameras. No matter what he told them, they might not believe him. Their trust in him would be broken, and it would probably be a long time before they could forgive him. Then he’d have to deal with the guilt over that.

If he chose to confess, to come clean to the Monkeys, to let them in on the secret he’d been keeping from them… then all the crushing guilt and fear would go away. They’d probably be upset, still, that he was keeping this from them, but at least it was the truth. If the Monkeys knew about his sister, it didn’t necessarily follow that Skeleton King would find her. And didn’t they have the Super Robot? They could all protect her, if she needed them. She might even be able to help on missions, if he needed her.

He opened his eyes.

Amber tilted her head. “What did your heart decide?”

Chiro took a deep breath and wiped his face on his sleeve, grimacing as the cloth rubbed over the bruise on his chin. “It decided… that I guess we’re going to have a meeting with the Monkey Team.”

“We?”

“Yes, we.” He shifted his weight to stand up and something crunched.

“Chiro,” Amber said in a carefully controlled tone. “What are you sitting on?”

_Crunch._

“Something hard, ow.”

He stood straight up and then put out a hand to pull her up. They turned together to look at what Chiro had unwittingly sat on.

_Holy Shuggazoom._

“I hope the Monkeys like cookie crumbs,” Amber wheezed as she picked up her poor smushed cardboard box.

“I think they will…” Chiro snickered. He put his hands on his knees and just laughed about that for a good few seconds while Amber tried to smush the box back into its correct shape. She gave up after a few minutes and tucked it under her arm. She snorted and shook her head.

After he’d finished having a laugh over that for a bit, Amber looked down at him, her brows furrowing. “Are you sure, Chiro, are you sure this is what you want?”

Chiro nodded, smiled at her, and opened the Foot Crusher door.

* * *

“Aww, look at Chiro arguing with himself,” Otto said. Chiro and the girl who liked like him were arguing in front of Foot Crusher Cruiser 6, but the Monkeys couldn’t hear what was being said because the camera audio had suddenly cut out.

Gibson’s fingers flew over the console as he tried to find the volume knob. “For the last time, Otto, that’s not Chiro. Well, one of them is, but the other certainly is not.” He bent over, looking at the side of the panel. “Otto, when you rewired this panel, where did you put the audio controls? I can’t find them.”

Otto scratched his head. “Somewhere on the left, I think?”

Gibson sighed and continued pressing every button he could reach.

Sparx was sitting in his pod being absolutely unhelpful, munching on popcorn–who knows where he got that—and looking like his favorite sitcom just came on.

Nova gave him a withering glance. “Sparx, he’s really having trouble, maybe we should go help him?”

Sparx shoved a handful of popcorn in his mouth. “Nah, I’d give him a couple of minutes to figure it out.” Nova put her hand on her hip and tilted her head, her brow raising in question. “Come on, Nova. I say we give him time to figure it out and if it gets worse then we can bail him out.”

Nova sighed and rubbed her forehead, turning to the black Monkey instead. “Antauri?”

Antauri shook his head. “This is something Chiro needs to do on his own.”

Nova took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “All right.”

“I’ve found it!” Gibson shouted excitedly, turning the audio volume all the way up.

 _“I’m not going to let you,”_ Chiro said harshly.

“Umm, Gibson…” Otto began.

 _“Chiro, I thought really hard about this, and I think this is the only way that’s going to work for us long-term,”_ the girl said _. “I can’t keep…”_

 _“I… don’t… CARE!”_ came Chiro’s voice blasting out of the speakers.

The Monkeys shrieked and covered their ears as Gibson fumbled for the switch and turned it back down.

“Ow…” Otto complained, rubbing his head. “I tried to tell you it was up too high.”

 _Well, I don’t care what you think you’re doing for me!”_ the girl yelled back at Chiro. _“All I’m trying to do is the right thing!”_

 _“The right thing would be to get out of here and leave me ALONE!”_ Chiro shouted.

Nova caught sight of flickering green light beginning to form around Chiro and she stepped unconsciously toward the monitor. “Antauri, we have to do something…”

“No, Nova, we have to let him do this on his own,” the black Monkey repeated. “This is a problem of Chiro’s making; thus he must resolve it as well.”

The girl screamed Chiro’s name and then they were throwing punches. The Monkeys collectively inhaled in surprise and leaned toward the monitor. To their surprise, the brawl lasted only seconds before both parties landed a hard blow.

“Oh, ow, geez, that’s gonna bruise,” Sparx grimaced, looking at the mark on Chiro’s jaw.

“Same for the girl,” Gibson said. “Chiro, what have you done?”

Chiro’s adrenaline seemed to have all drained out of him because he sat down on the Foot Crusher ramp and started to cry. The girl moved over toward him and touched his shoulder, speaking quietly to him.

Gibson’s hand found the audio knob again but Antauri put his arm in front to stop him. “Some things are not meant for our ears. When Chiro is ready, he will come speak with us.” Gibson looked at him through the corner of his eyes but nodded, instead turning the volume down again.

The girl seemed to calm Chiro down, and they talked for a long time. Sparx had finished his popcorn before the two of them stood up again. They picked up a crumpled package off the ramp and shared a laugh about that for a moment. Chiro then moved out of the camera’s view, taking the girl with him. Gibson switched to a couple of other cameras but couldn’t find them.

The Monkeys didn’t have to worry too much about where he was, however, because they could hear the orange elevator making its way toward the main floor.

* * *

“I’m glad it worked out, Chiro,” Amber said, dabbing at her cheek wound with a tissue.

“I think it’ll be fun,” Chiro said, crossing his arms and grinning at her. “You can hang out here whenever you want, and you can go on missions with us too if you want…”

Amber folded up the tissue and put it inside another. “I mean, we’ll see about that. Not sure if I’m going to want to be anywhere near the monster-fighting stuff you guys do. Wasn’t that the whole point of this?”

Chiro sighed and then nodded. “Yeah, you’re right, that was the whole point. I still don’t want you to get hurt… and without any powers I don’t know if you could help us at all. As much as I’d want you to maybe be able to be near us… maybe it’s not a good idea.” He tapped his finger on his thigh. “Wait, maybe I could get Otto to make you a weapon. A sword or something. And Nova could train you to use it. She’s got so many weapons on display in her room—I think she knows how to use most of them. That could work!”

Her mouth twisted but turned up at the corner. “I’ll… I’ll think about that. We’ll play it by ear. And also, dial way back on the enthusiasm, buddy. You’re gonna be in so much trouble for not telling anyone I exist.”

His shoulders slumped and he sighed. “Yeah, probably.” The elevator stopped, and he stood up straight again. “Okay, we’re here. Be nice, okay? Don’t embarrass me.”

“Don’t do anything dumb, and I won’t have to.” Chiro made a face at her and she patted his hair. “I’m kidding. You can do this. I believe in you.”

Chiro took a deep breath and stepped out of the tube, pulling at her hand. “Wait here,” he said to her quietly. She nodded.

The Monkeys were already gathered in the room. She quietly counted them, _one two three four five,_ as her brother stepped forward to talk to them.

“I’m sure you’ve been wondering what’s been up with me,” he began, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. “I’ve been awful to all of you; mean, rude, inconsiderate… I haven’t been a good leader, or a good friend, and I’m really sorry about that.” He hung his head ashamedly.

Antauri approached him. “Did you learn anything, Chiro?”

His head snapped back up and he blinked. “What?”

“Since you have now learned how _not_ to lead, I hope that in the future you will do the opposite.”

Chiro nodded his head fervently. “Yes, I promise. I’ll do better, I’m so, so sorry.”

“Chiro, we were worried,” Nova admonished. “As long as we’ve known you, you’ve never acted like that before, and we didn’t know what to do.”

“I know, Nova. I didn’t know what to do with myself,” Chiro admitted.

“You look a lot happier now,” Otto observed.

“Yeah. Like you were carrying the weight of the whole Super Robot… and you finally dropped it,” Sparx said, grinning up at the boy.

Chiro grinned back. “Yeah, something like that.”

“So, now everything goes back to normal, right?” Otto asked.

"No, now he explains to us who that is and why she is here,” Gibson said, pointing at Amber. “This is the second time in a week that Chiro has let a stranger into the Super Robot, and I really hope this is not going to become a regular thing.”

Chiro looked over his shoulder and met his sister’s eyes. She gave him a very slight nod. “Right.” He took her hand once again and led her over to where the Monkeys were gathered. “Antauri, I know you wanted no more secrets, and I promise that this is my last one. This is my sister, Amber.”

The Monkeys freaked out.

“I always thought he was an orphan?”

“Impossible! Well, not impossible, but very unlikely. Chiro, how could you not tell us?”

“Chiro, you have kept her a secret from us all this time?”

“I guess there aren’t two of you, then? I did think that was kinda weird.”

“Wait, if he has a sister, does that means he has parents around somewhere, too?”

There was a lot of screeching, shrieking, and general mayhem for about three minutes until Chiro got everyone calmed down again. He rubbed the back of his neck and grinned a little. “Amber, I’m sorry it’s so crazy…”

“Honestly? I thought it would be worse.”

But her heart was pounding hard against her ribs, and the only reason she was as calm as she was was that she didn’t want to scare Chiro or freak out the Monkeys any more than they already were. They’d all spoken. They’d all spoken, and as in both her visions, she’d understood. Each voice tallied exactly with what she’d heard already. A deep, composed voice for the black Monkey. A high-pitched energy for the yellow one. A very precise, almost scholarly tone for the blue one. Another deep voice for the green one, not as deep as the black one, but kind and maybe a little silly. And a gruff, warm, affectionate tone for the red one. Her fingers trembled around the knot holding her bag closed. It wasn’t that she was scared. They were good beings—they protected the city and taught her brother, fostering him as though he was one of them. They were brave and strong, and she knew they wouldn’t mean her any harm. But she shouldn’t be able to understand them. And why she could do that… she didn’t know.

The Monkey Team gathered around the girl.

Nova spoke first. “Sorry for freaking out. Nice to meet you. I’m Nova.”

Otto grinned widely. “My name’s Otto.”

Sparx shook her hand. “The name’s SPRX-77, but you can call me Sparx, everyone does.”

Amber nodded and smiled at him, still trying to comprehend the fact that the Monkeys were actually trying to converse with her.

“Kid, this girl does really look just like you,” Sparx said, gesturing with his hand. “I should have known you two were related because you look exactly alike.” Nova elbowed him in the ribs. “Ow! What?” Chiro and Amber shared a look and a chuckle. “What’s so funny?”

“It’s just that everyone tells us that,” Chiro explained. “The first thing than anyone notices about us is that we look alike. We could be twins, except she’s four AND A HALF—” he emphasized, seeing her mouth open to correct him “—years older than me.”

Gibson cleared his throat and Amber turned her attention toward him. “My name is Mr. Hal Gibson, but don’t worry about the Mr. or the Hal, just call me Gibson, please.” Amber nodded in acknowledgement.

Antauri was last, and he bowed to Amber. “I am Antauri. I am second in command of the Hyperforce.”

Amber took a deep breath and bowed her head. “I’m very pleased to finally meet you all. Chiro’s told me quite a bit about you all already, but I’m very happy to officially meet you in person. My name is Manami Amber Rinelli, but I prefer to be called by my middle name.”

Gibson’s eyes widened. “You… you can understand our monkey tongue?”

Amber winced. “I… I think so, yeah.”

“Jinmay couldn’t understand,” Nova said, brow furrowing. “Nobody else can, either, except Chiro. How’s… how’s it possible that there’s another?”

Chiro’s eyes went wide as plates. “Amber, you can understand them? You’ve been understanding them the whole time?”

Amber nodded almost unhappily as cold apprehension slid up her spine.

“ _How?”_ The question echoed loudly in the room. “How’s that possible?” The boy shook his head sharply. “I’m the only one who can understand them. It’s because of the Power Primate, isn’t it?” He raked his hands through his bangs and let out a panicked breath. “Right, Antauri, isn’t it because of the Power Primate?”

The black Monkey nodded slowly. “Yes, as far as I have learned, the Power Primate itself does act as a translator. That is so that beings of all races and tongues, when utilizing the Power Primate, would always be able to understand one another.”

“When I first met them, you did think it was weird that I could understand them,” Chiro rattled on, still raking his hand through his hair like he was trying to rip the strands out. “And it turns out it was because of the Power Primate. You don’t have that power. I don’t get it. What’s going on?”

Amber wrapped her arms around herself. The fact that Chiro was freaking out about this wasn’t reassuring her—it actually made her feel worse that whatever was going on with her was scaring him. “I… I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I didn’t know until recently… and when I heard you talk just now, when you were talking with Chiro, I guess that solidified it. It wasn’t my imagination.”

“Did some of the kid’s Power Primate rub off on her?” Sparx asked, looking down the line at Antauri.

“I don’t think that’s how it works, Sparx,” Nova said, snorting at the thought.

“I dunno. This is crazy. First the robot girl, now this.” Sparx scratched his head. “This is all just way too weird for me.”

Gibson’s brow furrowed as he studied the girl intently. “Well… this is unexpected, to say the least. Chiro, you didn’t know?”

Chiro shook his head. “No! She’s never talked to you guys before. We wouldn’t know about it.”

“Hmm. Well, in a few moments, I would like to run some tests, if that’s all right with you, Amber.”

The girl nodded, because what else could she do? _Tests? What kind?_

Otto put his hand on Amber’s arm. She flinched very slightly but turned her head to look at him. He smiled at and looked around and behind her. “I think I smell something yummy. You didn’t bring food or anything, did you?”

Amber sighed and compartmentalized all her panic and worry off to the side to be dealt with a little bit later. “Oh, yeah…” She reached behind herself and pulled out a plastic bag with a rather crushed cardboard box in it. “I did bring these cookies for you all, I’m so sorry, they had a bit of an accident…”

“What happened?” Nova asked.

“Chiro sat on them.”

“I’m so sorry…” Chiro chuckled.

“Yeah, so they’re a bit crushed, but I’m pretty sure they’re still edible.” Amber untied the plastic and opened the box. The cookies were mostly in big pieces, with a few on the bottom still whole. _Phew._

“Why’d you make cookies, anyway?” Chiro asked.

“Mostly as an apology, or maybe as a peace offering.” Amber bowed her head again. “I’d like to explain, if it’s okay, why Chiro never told you about me.”

“We are curious,” Antauri said. He was wearing his most neutral expression, a mask that told her nothing about whether this curiosity was benevolent or angry.

“This is all my fault.” The Monkeys were silent as she explained. “When Chiro first woke you up, he was so happy and excited. You became his friends and began to teach him… but as soon as he learned that your purpose was to defend Shuggazoom against Skeleton King, he got so scared for me. And when he came home and told me, I got so scared for him. We talked, and we decided that he would fight, but that I would stay as far away from danger as possible. And we decided the best way to keep me out of danger was to keep my existence a secret.”

“Why, though?” Nova asked.

“Since Skeleton King was probably going to come after the Monkey Team,” she gestured to the Monkeys as a whole, “you guys, and since Chiro was in with you, he’d come after him as well. We thought there was a chance if you all knew that I existed, that Skeleton King could find out, and that would put me directly in harm’s way. The only way to keep me completely safe was to pretend I didn’t exist. He would never see me or have anything to do with me, and so you would never know about me. You had assumed he was an orphan, so we decided to keep letting you think that.”

Chiro put his hand on her shoulder. “Amber, we did decide together that we were gonna keep that secret. You didn’t want me to get hurt, and I didn’t want you to get hurt either.”

Amber choked out a sobbing wheeze. “I guess our problem is that we both care too much.”

“Chiro, are these things true?” asked Antauri.

Chiro sighed. “Yes, it’s true. I’m so sorry, guys, I’m so sorry I didn’t trust you with my biggest secret.”

“But there aren’t any more secrets, right, Chiro?” Gibson said, crossing his arms and raising his brow.

“Any more secret identities or alter egos we should know about?” Sparx asked.

Chiro shook his head. “No, no. No more. I promise.”

Otto approached Amber first and took a cookie out of the box. He waved it in front of Amber’s nose. “Amber, it’s okay now, don’t be upset. There’s cookies!”

Amber gulped, giggled, and took the cookie. “Thank you, Otto.”

"Here, Amber, please take this,” Nova ventured as she approached the group, holding out a white compress. “It’s ice and antiseptic, should help your cheek.”

“Of course, if you’re all right with it, Amber, we could dress it properly,” Gibson offered.

Amber nodded. “Maybe in a moment.” She took the compress and gave the yellow Monkey a cookie in return. She winced as she dabbed the pack against the injury.

“You guys have to try Amber’s cookies,” Chiro insisted. “They’re the best cookies in Shuggazoom City.”

Gibson smiled. “I’d like to test that theory.”

The Monkeys each took either a whole cookie or a handful of cookie pieces and curiously tasted them. The overall reaction was surprise and excitement, and Sparx asked, only half-joking, if they could keep Amber so she could bake for them.

Within a few minutes the cookies had all vanished and Amber folded up the box and put it away.

“They were really good, Amber,” Otto said. “Better than mine, I think.”

Amber reached out a hand and patted Otto on the head. “Thank you. I’m so glad you liked them.”

Sparx wiped the rest of the chocolate from his muzzle. “All right, you appeased us.” Nova snorted and rolled her eyes.

“Thank you, Amber, for bringing those for us,” Antauri said, finally stepping forward himself. “But I do want to reassure you, that you shouldn’t fret about what you’ve done any longer. And Chiro, I understand that you love your sister and you want to protect her, and that is why you acted the way you did.”

“But you know, kid, that’s what we’re here for,” Sparx said, crossing his arms. “Tell us next time you have a problem, okay?”

“Yeah, and we’ll do our best to help you,” said Nova.

Chiro held up his hands. “Okay, okay, I get it. I’ve learned my lesson.” The worry in his heart was lessened just a little bit. He’d come clean, and the Monkeys didn’t hate him for the secret he’d kept.

But now this new problem came up, just as he was able to put the last one to rest… his sister could understand the Monkeys. It wasn’t… bad. It was actually nice. He hadn’t told his sister this, but he’d been just a little worried that he would have to constantly translate monkey speak. Now he didn’t need to, and despite how insane the reality was that she could understand, he was glad for it.

Gibson had said he would run some tests to try and figure it out, and Antauri looked just pensive enough that he could see he was thinking it through, also. Gibson was their smart guy, he’d get to the bottom of it. And Antauri did know the most about the Power Primate, so if there was something weird up with that… he’d be the one to figure it out.

* * *

And that’s how Amber spent the rest of the morning—being poked, zapped, and scanned by Gibson in the sick bay. By lunchtime, he’d run out of tests to try. After a couple of hours, Nova and Chiro stuck their heads into the room to see what the verdict was. Amber was sitting on the floor rubbing her eyes and Gibson was typing furiously into the lab computer.

Amber waved at the two visitors. “Hi, Chiro. Hi, Nova.”

Chiro knelt on one knee by his sister. “Holy Shuggazoom, are you okay? What did Gibson do to you?” He ran the back of his finger against the sticky bandage that Sparx had applied to her cheekbone.

She teasingly lolled her head back and bounced it forward again, tapping her nose against his knuckle. “I’m fine,” she said, trying to reassure him. “Gibson ran about a zillion tests on me. He took a blood sample, scanned every part of my body—fifteen different scans! —poked and prodded me all over, zapped me a bit, ran me through the wash… you know, science-y type stuff.”

Chiro sat down next to her and leaned his head on her shoulder. “Well, in that case, I’m glad you survived it.”

Nova picked up the sheet of paper that was slowly being printed out of the computer and raised a brow.

Chiro took his head off his sister’s shoulder and looked up at the blue Monkey. “Well, did you find anything out from all those tests, Gibson?”

Gibson took the printouts from Nova, ripping them out of the computer with a _ksccriitch_. “Well, according to the tests I just performed, she is one hundred percent human, just like you, Chiro. Unsurprisingly, she has a seventy-two point eight six genetic blueprint similarity to you.”

“Well, duh. She _is_ my sister,” Chiro pointed out.

Gibson scratched his head. “Eyes, blue. Hair, black. Blood type, O-. Vision, twenty-twenty. Age, eighteen years, four months, and one day. Height, one hundred sixty-five centimeters. Weight, fifty-five kilograms.”

“Gibson…” Amber said through clenched teeth.

“Oh, I’m sorry, was I not supposed to mention that one?” He looked further down the page but apparently didn’t find anything else noteworthy. He folded up the paper with a sigh and set it on the exam table. “Nothing I found in my tests gives even a suggestion as to a logical reason why she can understand our Monkey language.”

“Then perhaps it is not due to any biological capability, but a spiritual one instead,” Antauri said, floating into the room with Sparx at his side.

“Do you think it could be the Power Primate after all?” Nova asked.

“I… I suspect that might be the case,” Antauri said. He looked at Amber, and the calm neutrality in his eyes belied a piercing observance that seemed to gaze into her very soul. 

_How could that be true?_ Amber’s breath caught, and she looked Monkey to Monkey to Chiro around the room. Each was looking at her like she was a rare, magical creature.

“I… I don’t know how that’s possible,” Chiro said at last. “But… I guess, if I can understand them because of the Power Primate, then the reason you can is also because of it. I guess.” He stood up and pulled her up with him.

Antauri nodded. “Chiro, show us the Power Primate, please.”

“O-okay.” The boy closed his eyes and concentrated, holding out a hand palm up in front of him. After a second a green ball of energy formed itself over his palm. He opened his eyes to look at it and smiled proudly.

Antauri met Amber’s gaze. “Could you create a similar effect?”

“I… I don’t know.” Her eyes shot a silent plea in her brother’s direction. This was crazy. All of this was insane. She had Chiro’s same power?

Chiro let his energy ball dissipate. “All you have to do is find the warm light in your heart. Feel it, and let it flow out of you,” he said.

_Warm light in my heart?_

“All right. I… I guess I could try.” Amber took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She reached down deep inside herself to find a warm light. To her surprise, she found it easily. For a moment she held it, letting it grow until it flowed out of her, just like Chiro said. She heard audible gasps from the Monkeys. “What? What happened?” she asked worriedly.

Chiro pointed at her hand and she brought it up to her face.

Floating above her palm, exactly as Chiro had, was a little green energy ball. It felt warm and tingly, and her heart skipped a beat. “Oh, goodness. Hi,” she mumbled to it, staring disbelievingly at it for a few moments. “Uh, Chiro? How do I get rid of it?”

“Oh, um… relax your body. Or at least breathe out and relax your fingers.”

Amber did what her brother said and the little ball disappeared.

“Well, I guess that’s that,” Sparx noted.

“You really have the Power Primate? When did you get the Power Primate?” Chiro asked incredulously.

“Well… ah…”

She knew how Chiro had apparently received his power. And she had a weird hunch about where she’d gotten hers as well. But she didn’t feel that now was the time to try and talk it through. She’d already put too much on these poor monkeys.

“You saw it for yourself, Chiro,” Nova said.

Chiro shook his head. “Yeah, but I have a hard time believing it. I thought I was the only human that had it.”

“It might seem difficult to believe, but you should believe it, Chiro,” Antauri said. “The Power Primate resides within your sister as well.”

“Another outcome I did not predict…” Gibson sighed. He walked back toward the computer. “Now that we know the source of her power, I should test the extent of it…”

Amber grabbed his tail and pulled him back toward her. “Would it be all right if I tested a theory of my own?”

Gibson turned on his heel and grabbed his tail back out of her grasp. “Amber. I know you do not know this, given that you have known us for only a few hours… but please do not pull on our tails. They are just as much part of us as our arms or legs and it is very rude to just grab them.”

Amber’s hands flew to her mouth. “I’m so sorry, Gibson, I didn’t know that.”

“It’s all right.” The blue Monkey sighed. “And, very well, you may test whatever you seem to be curious about.”

Amber turned back toward her brother. “Chiro, look at the ceiling for me.”

“What’s on the ceiling?”

“Nothing, I just want to look at your jaw.”

Chiro obeyed, tilting his chin up until she could see the discoloration on the underside of his chin. _Geez, I didn’t even know I hit him that hard._ The Monkeys must have given him ice at some point because the swelling had gone down quite a bit, but the purple blotchiness was probably going to stay for a while.

_Unless…_

Amber took a deep breath and put her hands on the sides of his neck, slotting the web of her thumb against his ears and placing her thumbs gently on his cheeks.

“Amber, what are you doing?” Sparx asked.

“You’ll see.” Amber’s brow furrowed as she concentrated, and to everyone’s amazement, her hands began to give off a faint green glow. As the Monkeys watched, the bruise began to change color, purple to green to yellow, before fading away completely.

Amber let go of her brother’s face and he tilted his chin back down to look at the Monkeys who were all looking at him in amazement. “It… it doesn’t hurt anymore.”

“It’s gone, Chiro,” Nova said, her eyes wide with amazement.

Chiro turned and looked at his jaw in the glass of one of the healing tubes. He opened and closed his jaw and pulled at the skin with two fingers. The bruise _was_ gone. He looked back at his sister. “How did you _do_ that?”

Amber took a deep breath and folded her hands. “You probably don’t remember, Chiro, but I’ve healed you this way a few times before. When you burned yourself on the stove, which happened on at least three separate occasions, when you sprained your ankle falling down the basement stairs, oh, and that one time you almost gave yourself a concussion because you didn’t look where you were going when you were sliding down the banister…”

Chiro waved his arms, trying to stop her before she listed every stupid thing he’d ever done. “Okay, okay, we get the point.”

“Have you had this ability for a long time?” Antauri queried.

Amber wasn’t really sure if it was right, but she’d put two and two together. “For about four years, I think I’ve been able to do this. Not any deep or serious injuries… but I’ve been able to heal little things.”

“This isn’t… normal for humans, right, Gibson?” Sparx asked, looking over at the blue Monkey.

“As far as I know, humans do not have the innate ability to heal themselves as instantaneously as Amber has just shown us,” Gibson said, holding up an index finger. “Unless, of course, she is simply increasing his own natural healing factor, which is a possibility, but I cannot determine that for certain, and of course that itself is not a natural human ability either.”

“So no, it’s not,” Nova translated. She put her hands on her hips. “Does that healing come from the Power Primate?”

“Her hands glowed green,” Sparx said, waving his hands. “The same thing that Chiro does when he uses the Power Primate.”

Gibson shook his head, holding his hands up in surrender.

“Amber, do you have any other powers? Either ones that have recently manifested themselves or ones that you believe are innate?” Antauri asked.

Amber looked at her brother and he nodded almost imperceptibly. She took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. “Chiro and I… have what I believe is an empathy bond.”

The Monkeys all reacted with surprise to this.

“An empathy bond?” Antauri questioned.

“This is getting weirder by the second,” Sparx mumbled over to Gibson, and the blue Monkey nodded in agreement.

“A special bond between minds,” Amber explained. “Each of us can feel the other’s emotions when we feel them strongly, and when the other is injured, we feel a similar pain.”

“So when Amber’s really sad, I can tell,” Chiro said.

“And when Chiro twisted his ankle, mine started to hurt,” Amber said. “That’s normal for us. I don’t know how or why we have this specific bond, but I think it’s something that we… that we’ve always had.”

Antauri nodded and seemed to file this information away. “Anything else?”

“There is something new, something that I haven’t even really had the chance to speak with Chiro about,” Amber said, racing onward. Chiro looked at her with a start. “This has never happened to me before, so I don’t think it’s something to do with our bond… I mean it could be, I don’t know. Yesterday, I had two visions.”

“Visions?” the four Monkeys said at once.

Amber nodded. “The first one was of Chiro. I saw him standing in a black starry room with green walls everywhere. It was a maze. And then I saw you, Antauri, I guess you were the teacher.”

Chiro’s brows flew up, then down into a concerned line. “Oh. You… you did see that?”

“I tried to ask you what you thought but you didn’t really want to talk about it.”

Chiro rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. “Heh heh. Right…”

“Amazing,” Antauri said. “You saw all that in a vision?”

“I did have another, it was a dream this time. I saw all five of you, all five Monkeys, and you were having a meeting. You were all so worried about Chiro, and you decided you were going to talk with him and see why he was so upset.”

“Chiro wasn’t in that dream?” Antauri asked. Amber shook her head no. “Peculiar.”

“And Antauri, you didn’t ask… but that was the first time I heard all of you talk. In the first one…” She took a deep breath and pressed her hands to her hips, words racing ahead before she could lose the nerve to be open about what had happened. “In the first one, I heard you speak. And I understood what you said. And then I had the second vision, and I heard and understood everything that all five of you said. I tried to tell myself it was just a dream, that maybe I’d imagined it… and then I came here, and I heard you all speak again. And I understood, again.” Her fingers dug into the fabric of her skirt. “The same voices I’d heard from all of you before. And I was so upset about why that was… but I guess it’s because I do have some… kind… of Power Primate power. Enough to translate, anyway.”

“Perhaps…” Gibson ventured. “Perhaps these… these visions are the result of her two abilities converging. Her empathetic power crossed with the Power Primate.”

“That could be possible,” Antauri said thoughtfully. “If it is only empathic, then she is only bonded with Chiro, so her second vision should not have occurred. And yet she was able to see us and hear and understand our conversation. It is incredibly odd, but… not entirely out of the realm of possibility, for the Power Primate.”

“Her powers are so different than Chiro’s, Antauri,” Nova ventured. “It’s so strange.”

“It is, Nova,” Antauri agreed. “But hopefully, if Amber is all right with it, we should be able to find out more about it, and about all of her abilities.”

Otto came bursting in the door, interrupting all conversation. “Chiro! Emergency! It’s raining Formless ooze!”

“It’s doing _what_?” Amber asked incredulously.

Chiro stood up straight. “We’ve gotta check it out. Monkeys, mobilize.” He tapped his comm and in a flash of green light was adorned in his Hyper Mode form. The Monkeys and Amber were on his heels as he dashed out the door into the main room.

Otto was already staring intently at the monitor. There were indeed some very large, oily-looking black clouds hovering over much of the city, and most of them were raining black ooze. Formless appeared wherever the ooze landed—on the ground, the buildings, even the Super Robot.

“Amber, I need you to do me a favor,” Chiro said in a quiet, intent voice, not taking his eyes off the monitor.

Amber clasped her hands in front of her chest. “What?”

“We’re under attack, and we have to protect the city. Whatever happens next, I need you to listen to me and to the Monkeys and do whatever we say. And if we say hide, then I want you to do it. Please.”

“Chiro—”

He turned and faced her, chin level and eyes determined. “Please, Amber.”

“…All right.”

The Robot shook suddenly on its feet and the Monkey screeched as they tried to keep their balance. Chiro braced himself on the edge of a pod-chair.

“What’s happening?” Nova yelled.

Alarms began to blare harshly. “They’re trying to ooze in through the Super Robot’s joints!” Gibson answered, eyes wide.

“In that case, we’ve gotta get the Super Robot out of Machinder Mode,” Chiro told his team. “Hyperforce, go!” The Monkeys raced for their tubes and were soon sucked out of sight, leaving Amber and Chiro alone in the main room.

“I think the safest place you’re going to be is with me,” Chiro told her.

Amber took a deep breath and nodded in agreement. Oh, stars, she was going to be in the middle of all of it. The first little claws of panic sank into her heart but she shook them loose for now. The monster attacks were scary. She’d seen the damage, seen the battles on the news more times than she could count. There’d been a couple of times where she’d been out in the Shopping District when a big monster showed up, and the best she could do was hunker down wherever she was and wait it out. Being in the heart of the action, though, within the Super Robot itself… was a different kind of scary.

But underneath that fear, she couldn’t say she wasn’t a little tiny bit excited.

“Okay, sis, you go first.” He pointed at his orange tube. “The tube will zhoop you to the Torso Tank’s cockpit. You’ll land on the front seat, but you should move to the other one, unless you want to either drive or have me land on your lap.”

“Well, I don’t want either of those things,” Amber snorted. “Okay. You got it.”

The travel tube was a very strange transportation system Amber had never used before. It was rather like a water slide—but in reverse, and without water. The tube turned downward and deposited Amber in Chiro’s seat. She rolled out of it and sat in the one behind it instead, fastening the seatbelts over her chest.

Within a few seconds Chiro landed on the seat in front of her. “All right. Prepare to disengage.” He pressed a red button on the console, triggering the switch to vehicle mode. The Brain Scrambler disengaged first, followed by the Fist Rockets and the Foot Crusher Cruisers. The Torso Tank was last, of course, compacting and transferring into tank mode.

“Foot Crusher Cruiser 6, go!”

“Foot Crusher Cruiser 5, go!”

“Fist Rocket 4, go!”

“Fist Rocket 3, go!”

“Brain Scrambler Pilot 2, go!”

“Torso Tank Driver 1, go!”

“Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce, go!”

Chiro turned in his seat. “Sis, you okay?”

Amber took a steadying breath and nodded. “I’m fine. I’m here. And I won’t move unless you tell me to. Focus on the Formless.”

“You got it. Gotta get rid of all of them.” He turned his attention back to his team. “Okay, Monkey Team, we have two problems. One, we have to get rid of the clouds or else the Formless will just keep coming. Two, we have to get rid of all the Formless that are in Shuggazoom City right now before they hurt anyone. Here’s the plan. Gibson, Sparx, head for the sky, try and destroy or contain those clouds. Antauri, shoot down the Formless on the roofs and buildings before they can get to ground level. Otto, Nova, and I are gonna head downtown.”

“You got it, kid,” Sparx said.

Chiro steered the Torso Tank toward City Center, flanked by the two Foot Crusher Cruisers. Amber observed him curiously as he drove the massive vehicle with skill. Hmm. Well, it wasn’t that she hadn’t known he could, she’d seen it often enough on the news, but it was different to watch him up close.

It was a little scary, if she was honest, but deep down she was very proud of him for being able to do what he did.

Chiro parked the Torso Tank at the intersection of two big streets. “Okay, sis, there’s too many individual Formless for the Torso Tank to be effective.” He unclicked his seatbelts. “I’m going out to help the citizens and give the Formless a good beat-down by hand and figure it out from there.” He tapped the dashboard. “Nova, Otto, you heard that? Vehicles aren’t gonna be too helpful, so I want us to get down on the street and get ‘em ourselves.”

"Roger, Chiro,” Otto said, his image appearing on one of Chiro’s forward screens.

Nova’s image spliced in next to Otto’s. “I was looking forward to kicking some Formless butt today!”

“Meet me by the Torso Tank. Chiro out.” He stood up and fixed his sister with a very serious look. “Amber. Stay here.” He pointed at the floor to punctuate each word. “The safest place you’re gonna be is right here in the Torso Tank. Don’t touch anything, don’t go anywhere until I call you. Okay?”

He was serious. Very serious. Amber wasn’t really sure if she’d ever seen him be this serious about anything before. He had authority in his tone, too, and it was unheard of for him to talk to her like that. It was weird, but she wasn’t going to complain or argue. It was his job now, he was the Hyperforce leader and this was Hyperforce business. He was in charge. And like it or not, that meant he had authority over her.

It made her chest prickle with a little bit of annoyance, but she knew he had reason to act the way he did. He was trying to protect her, and she was thankful for that. “Yes, Chiro, I got it.”

He nodded firmly and climbed up through the top hatch and out of the top of the Torso Tank. Amber sighed, slumped back in her seat, and watched the monitors which were focusing back on the two Fist Rockets high above the city.

Both Fist Rockets headed toward the largest cloud hovering over the center of the city.

“Curious,” Gibson mused. “Normal clouds are made of water vapor, but this appear to be much thicker and heavier than vapor. How then are they staying aloft?”

“My scanners are showing some kind of weird machine inside the cloud,” Sparx noted.

“A machine inside the cloud?”

"I’ve got it,” Sparx said, turning and flying directly toward it. 

“Sparx, wait!” Gibson shouted. “We need—”

 _Poof._ Fist Rocket 1 had disappeared into the cloud.

“—a plan.” Gibson groaned. He flew closer, examining the cloud more closely. Without any warning, Fist Rocket 1 came hurtling back out of the cloud, nearly clipping the other Fist Rocket.

“Sparx, what are you doing?” Gibson screeched, struggling to right his ship. “You nearly knocked me right out of the air!”

Sparx did a few barrel rolls to rid his wings of the clinging ooze. “Sorry, Gibson. You know, I don’t think that cloud is a cloud at all. It’s… it’s sticky, like flying through honey.”

Gibson sighed and scratched his head. “Thank you for your hands-on observation, Sparx—however, it is still a cloud.”

Sparx fired a handful of missiles into the cloud to no avail. The dark mass simply swallowed them up.

“Gibson… Chiro has told me about all of you before—we’ve been talking. He did let me know that you’re the science officer? You’re the one who works the most with math and all types of science?” came Amber’s voice crackling over the comm.

“I do wonder how he managed to do that without any of us finding out,” Gibson grumbled. “But yes, you are correct. Why do you ask?”

“If it’s all right… I know you guys probably have it under control, but I was wondering if I could offer a suggestion?”

“I mean, offer away, it’s not like it’ll make it worse,” Sparx complained, weaving his way around the cloud masses, looking for a weak spot.

“I… well, I suppose it couldn’t hurt. What’s on your mind, Amber?” the blue Monkey said.

“Normal water vapor can be frozen if reduced to a low enough temperature, correct? It can be converted from gas to liquid to solid by reducing the temperature. That machine Sparx scanned could be the source of the clouds, perhaps even keeping them aloft by flying or hovering. Maybe… maybe if you reduced the temperature around the cloud, the vapor would solidify, becoming too solid and heavy for the machine to keep afloat.”

“I think that’s a crazy idea,” Sparx noted, glancing at Gibson on his screen. “Sounds like something the kid would come up with.”

“Well, Amber, your science stands firm, and I would be willing to bet that it would work. Try your freeze ray, Sparx,” Gibson said.

The red Monkey shrugged and flipped his missile launcher to a freeze ray. “Okay, let’s give it a shot.”

Both Fist Rockets set their freeze rays on the cloud below them. Within a few minutes, the clouds began to solidify, becoming smaller and denser. However, the cold was causing another problem to arise.

“My systems are stalling, Gibson!” Sparx yelled. His dashboard was blinking more red than usual and the levers were getting harder and harder to push into place. “I can’t take much more of this!”

Gibson was having a similar problem. “Just a few more minutes,” he grunted out between his teeth.

Luck was on their side. A few moments later, the cloud had completely solidified into a huge, sharp, black crystal, too heavy to stay airborne!

“Look out below!” Sparx shouted.

The black crystal dropped heavily out of the sky, crashing into the street and splitting in half. The machine inside sparked and whirred, smoke pouring from it, and within a moments, it exploded with a hair-raising _BABOOOOM_! The force of the explosion was far-reaching, and Amber clung to the back of Chiro’s chair as the Torso Tank itself was rocked by the flare of heat and fire.

“Amber, you okay?” Sparx asked, pulling his Fist Rocket up just enough so he could see the plumes of smoke. “You’re still in the Torso Tank, right? It got a little caught in the blast radius there…”

Amber unclenched her knuckles and forced herself to breathe. The cockpit itself was fine, the controls were sparking just a little, and the screens were pixilating in a way they probably weren’t supposed to… but she wasn’t hurt and the structural integrity of the vehicle was still intact. “I’m all right. Please don’t worry about me.” She didn’t want to have to be something else that these heroes had to worry about. Her heart climbed up into her throat. She didn’t want to be collateral damage or cause any other problems for their already well-oiled team.

“Okay. Long as you’re fine. If you got hurt Chiro’d never let us hear the end of it.”

That probably was true. After this, she was going to stay as far away from the fighting as possible. She was extra baggage that really had no business being here, Power Primate or not.

With the main machine destroyed, the rest of the clouds began to dissipate in short order and the rain ceased completely within moments.

“It worked?” Gibson queried, raising a brow. He shook his head and moved his Fist Rocket just a little out of range and set the systems to warm back up properly. “Interesting. Thank you for the suggestion, Amber.”

Amber leaned over the back of Chiro’s empty seat and craned her neck and could just see the smoke out of the corner of Chiro’s screen. “It did, I think. Whatever that machine was… it’s in pieces on the street. Thank you so much, Sparx, Gibson.”

“Ah, it’s in the job description,” Sparx said, his face appearing on one of the two monitors in the Torso Tank’s cockpit.

Gibson’s face appeared on the other. “Sparx, since our part of the plan has been successfully completed, it would most likely be prudent for us to head downtown and see if Chiro needs any help.”

“Ugh, my radar’s _covered_ with Formless,” Sparx groaned. “The kid probably needs some backup.” Both the red and blue Fist Rockets rushed off to find somewhere to land. 

Amber sighed and leaned forward, leaning her forearms on the top of Chiro’s chair in front of her. But before she could even really have a moment to relax, an alarm blared shrilly from Chiro’s dashboard. She yelped and jumped, wide eyes fastened to the screens. The cameras had changed to security feed of the outside of the Torso Tank, and there were lots of dreadfully familiar monsters gathering around.

Formless.

The distressing shriek of tearing metal filled the cabin and Amber covered her ears. She looked at the screens again and saw the Formless with their claws, black as ink but sharp as knives, buried deep in the side of the Torso Tank, carving marks deep into the damaged durasteel. Amber was frozen, unsure what to do or how to react. _Don’t touch anything, don’t go anywhere until I call you,_ her brother had said. Which was just as well, she didn’t know how to drive this enormous vehicle or how to use any of its arsenal of weapons. _But the Formless!_

Her bond flickered, and the sensation of her brother’s fierce determination came through.

She let out her breath she hadn’t been realizing she’d been holding. Well, if she couldn’t do anything, there was always a chance she could get a hold of someone who could.

How to contact him, though? She remembered that a few minutes ago, he’d talked to the dashboard and Nova and Otto had been able to hear him. Maybe… maybe the communication system was all wired together. She took a deep breath and called her brother’s name.

* * *

Meanwhile, Chiro, Otto, and Nova were having quite a few problems of their own.

“Boom Boom Wake Up!” Nova cried.

“Whirling Destructo-Saws!” Otto shouted.

Chiro herded every person he could find into the nearest building to get them away from the advancing Formless, and twice he ended up grabbing someone away from their sharp black claws. Once the civilians were safe, then it was time for the real battle.

Otto and Nova flanked Chiro in the middle of the street. It was still drizzling ooze, and more Formless were popping up everywhere they looked.

“Might be tough if one more shows up,” Nova said, grinning. “Blech. It better stop raining soon.”

“I like the rain, but not like this,” Otto said, throwing his saw to slice a pair of Formless in half. High above the three of them, the Brain Scrambler was still strafing the tops of buildings, trying to keep any gathered Formless from getting to street level.

“Sparx and Gibson better do something about those clouds soon,” Chiro muttered, dodging a huge drop of ooze. “You guys ready?”

“Always!” Nova replied, grinning and pounding her Lady Tomahawks together.

“Then let’s get ‘em!”

Encouraged, they began to fight hand to hand with the Formless. Nova crushed them under pieces of rubble that had fallen. Otto used Scritch-Scratch-Doom-Thrower to blow up many at once. Chiro was a white blur, laying down Thunder Punches and Lightning Kicks on everything within reach.

The fight didn’t last long, ten minutes or less, before the ooze dripping from the sky slowed, then finally ceased. Chiro held out his hand to the sky. “Huh?”

“LOOK OUT BELOW!” Sparx shouted out of his comm.

Chiro looked upwards to see a very large, very sharp crystal falling straight out of the sky. He screeched and dashed out of its way. It actually ended up landing farther up the street, crushing a few more Formless into goop as it landed. Actually, it was a good thing that it landed farther away, because it wasn’t too long before –BABOOM! —it exploded.

“Chiro! Chiro, can you hear me?” he heard his sister cry from his comm.

He tapped at his comm to answer, breath catching in his chest. “What happened?”

There was an edge of terror to her usually calm voice that he did not like the sound of. “Chiro, the… the Torso Tank got caught up in that… that explosion, and the paneling’s kind of loose, and now there’s… there’s a lot of Formless trying to do even more damage. They’ve got their claws in it; they’re trying to peel it open!”

“We’ll be right there! Chiro out.” He tapped his comm again to disconnect the call. “Nova, come help me over by the Torso Tank. Otto, stay here and take care of these guys, will you?”

Otto grinned at him and sliced another half a dozen Formless back into sludge. “Sure thing, Chiro!”

With Nova at his side, Chiro raced back down the street to the intersection where, true to his sister’s word, there were probably a dozen Formless swarming the Torso Tank.

Nova caught Chiro’s eye and he nodded. They split formation, one going left, the other, right. Chiro grabbed the first Formless he saw by the ankle and used it to hit the others. “Get… away!” More Formless oozed up around him. “Ugh, I hate these guys. They just… keep… coming!” He used Monkey Fu on the ground, which crumbled and exploded, shredding all the Formless in range. 

Gibson and Sparx ran up to Chiro as he dusted his hands off. “Need a hand, kid?” the red Monkey asked.

Chiro grinned. “Nah, I had it totally under control.”

Now that the rain had stopped, new Formless finally stopped appearing. The little group of them rejoined Otto and Antauri, who had also landed his ship and come to their aid, and took out the straggler Formless in short order. Once they determined for sure that the coast was clear, they let the citizens know, and it was back to business as usual for Shuggazoom.

Chiro turned back to the Torso Tank stopped short as he really noticed for the first time what kind of damage had been sustained. It was quite a bit, unfortunately. The armor had taken a lot of damage, Sparx was standing there scratching his head over the massive claw marks, and somehow the cannon on top was ripped sideways into an angle it shouldn’t be.

“It did get caught in the blast radius from that odd machine exploding,” Gibson said, looking up at the boy. “The damage is probably not only from the Formless, but from the explosion as well.”

Chiro sighed. “Yeah, Amber told me that it did get caught in the explosion.” He gestured to the wrinkled, cracking durasteel. “So there’s a little bit of heat damage. And yeah, the Formless did some damage too.” He groaned and tapped his comm to contact his sister. “Uh, Amber? You still in there?”

“Yeah. You… you told me not to move, remember?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Chiro closed his eyes, trying to remember what buttons were on the inside of his seat. “Okay. Look at my control panel in front of my seat. There’s a little green button that’s smaller than the others. Push that one.”

Amber unlocked her restraints, got out of her seat, squinted at Chiro’s control panel, and pressed the indicated button. A hatch opened above her and a ladder extended out of the wall of the cockpit, extending far up into the ceiling and out of sight.

“Did you do that?”

“Yeah.”

“You can get out now, right?” Chiro asked.

“I think so.” Amber grabbed the bottom rung and began to climb up the ladder. It was narrow but fortunately not high. With effort, she pulled herself out onto the roof of the Torso Tank and Nova and Antauri helped her hop to the ground.

Otto’s brow was wrinkled up in distress and he was shaking his arms, hands clenched into fists. “I can’t believe it. All my nice paneling, and the improvements I did on the Torso Cannon…” He groaned and examined the damage with a practiced eye. It wasn’t the worst, but it wasn’t going to be a fast fix either. He looked up at Chiro. “It’s gonna take me a while to fix it, Chiro.”

Chiro folded his arms. “Is it really gonna take that long?”

“It looks bad. The armor panels are gonna take some time, plus I gotta check and make sure the controls are okay.”

Amber ran her hand over the sharp divot of a claw mark. Her heart was trying to tell her something. She put her other hand on the side of the Torso Tank. She could do something. Something to help.

Taking a deep breath, she began to pour her energy into the machine. Bands of green energy flowed down her arms through her hands into the side of the Torso Tank.

Nova screeched and pulled on Chiro’s sleeve. “What?” he asked, still in the middle of worrying over the damages with Otto. 

She pointed shakily at Amber.

Chiro turned and his eyes widened. “What are you doing?”

Amber looked at him, closed her eyes, and smiled. “Helping.”

As the Monkey Team watched, the claw marks healed themselves, the cannon reoriented itself, and the treads put themselves back where they belonged. As soon as Amber could force herself to cut off her power, she let go of the metal.

Suddenly, she found herself without even the energy to stand up. Her knees buckled and Sparx caught her shoulders before her head hit the pavement.

“Uhhhh…?” Shapes swam before her vision. Something black and white and blue put itself in her line of sight and she mustered up the energy to smile at it.

“Sis, are you okay?”

The last things she heard before falling unconscious were the anxious screeches of the Monkeys and her brother’s tearful voice calling her name.

_“AMBER!”_

* * *

The steady whoosh of the oxygen machine filled the room as Gibson anxiously watched Amber’s vitals. She’d already been placed in the healing tank, but he’d removed her in short order once it became apparent that it wasn’t helping. Currently, she was laying on one of the exam tables with the oxygen mask strapped to her face. It was all they could do for her.

“She’s gonna be okay, right, Gibson?” Chiro asked for the third time.

Gibson looked up at the boy and sighed. “Her vitals are low, but her breathing is steady.”

“Which means that she is indeed alive,” Antauri said, looking up at the boy.

“She’s alive, okay, that’s good,” Chiro said, raking a hand through his hair. “Any idea when she’ll wake up?

“Given what she did to put herself in that coma, I wouldn’t be surprise if she didn’t wake up for a long time,” Gibson said, shaking his head.

“She _healed_ the Torso Tank! Who does that?” Sparx interjected, gesturing violently with his hand.

“And nearly expended her own life force to do it,” Antauri said, squeezing his eyes shut. “I saw her life force fading, and it nearly went out. I never want to see that again.”

“How’d she even do it, though?” Nova asked. “She used her healing power to heal… metal?”

Gibson rubbed his forehead. “I admit, it doesn’t make much sense.”

“Okay, so even if we ignore the fact that she can heal metal, how come she can heal at all?” Sparx asked. “Chiro doesn’t have any healing powers.”

“They both have the Power Primate, but their powers are totally different,” Nova noted.

“Perhaps… perhaps the Power Primate is responding to Amber’s personality,” Antauri mused. “Since Amber cares so much for her brother, she was given the ability to heal.”

“The kid’s still learning about his powers,” put in Sparx. “Maybe if we work on her a bit she can learn some fighting skills too.”

“It’s true that Chiro’s powers are still evolving,” Antauri noted. “It could be possible that Amber has untapped potential within her as well.”

“Still, it’s pretty impressive right now,” Otto said. “She fixed every part of the Torso Tank. I checked.”

“It’s a skill I have never seen before, not even from my own masters on Koralladall,” Antauri said. “Perhaps it takes a special kind of person to bring this talent out.”

The Monkeys continued to talk among themselves, but Chiro wasn’t really in the mood to listen. He ran his knuckle over the crisp white bandage on her cheek and ran his finger over the edge of the oxygen mask. She had to be okay, she had to be. He brushed her bangs out of her eyes.

A small hand pulled at his sleeve. “Chiro.”

He looked down. “Hi, Nova.”

“She’s gonna be fine, Chiro, she just needs time,” Nova said.

“I know.” Her chest was barely moving with each breath. It almost looked like she wasn’t breathing at all. “I know, Nova.”

“You really care about her, don’t you?” the yellow Monkey asked softly.

He put his hand over his sister’s. “I don’t want anything to happen to her.”

Growing up, she’d always been there for him, holding him through the scary times, laughing with him through the fun times, crying with him through the sad times. He loved her more than anything, and all he wanted to do was keep her safe from all the dangerous stuff he was part of now. There was no way he was willing or able to put any of that into words that made sense, though.

“Can you feel anything through your bond thing?”

Chiro closed his eyes but already knew what he was going to sense. “I don’t feel anything. I’m not hurting, so I guess she’s not in pain, so that’s good.” He opened his eyes.

Gibson walked back over and examined the computer. “Well, her vitals are rising extremely slowly, but they are rising, Chiro. Don’t worry.”

For many hours, Amber lay unconscious. The Monkeys came in and out, taking turns reading Diagnostic’s output, but Chiro remained vigilant at her side. Her breathing gradually steadied, and he felt a little more relieved. He put a hand on her forehead, and she didn’t have a fever. That was good.

“Please, don’t die, Amber,” he whispered. “You’re going to be okay. I’m here.”

It was quite late when Nova and Otto came to check on them again. “Hey, Chiro, how is she?” Nova asked.

“A little better. Her breathing is better.” Chiro sighed. “I just really wish she would wake up.” He put his hand on her arm and put his chin in the crook of his arm.

Otto held up a plate with a sandwich on it. “Here, Chiro, I made you a sandwich. I wanted to make something fancy but Antauri said simpler was better.”

Chiro gratefully took the plate. “Thanks, Otto. It’s okay. PB&J is fine for dinner, I’m pretty hungry.” He finished the sandwich in eight bites and gave the plate back to Otto.

“I think it was pretty dumb of her to heal the Torso Tank,” Nova said, gently touching Amber’s arm. “I don’t know how she thought she could do it, but she almost got herself killed.”

Chiro’s heart began to pound. He knew that she had almost died, Antauri had said as much, but he didn’t want to think about it. He shook his head. “I don’t know why she did it either… and I hope she doesn’t ever do it again,” he said with conviction.

A snuffling sound caught his attention, and Chiro quickly checked the oxygen machine to make sure it was working. It was. The snuffling then changed to full-blown giggles and Chiro whipped his head around to look at his sister.

She was laughing.

“Since when is PB&J fine for dinner?” she giggled. “I’ll remember that next time you tell me you’re hungry.” She opened her eyes, and they twinkled in the bright lighting.

“…Amber?” Chiro’s eyes were as wide as the plate he’d just handed back to Otto.

Amber gingerly propped herself up on one elbow. “Ugh… what happened?”

“Amber, you… you… you nearly DIED!” Chiro cried, flinging himself at her and hugging her tight. She scooched up to sit up straight and wound her arms around his shoulders.

Otto pulled at Nova’s arm. “We should tell the others.” Nova nodded in agreement.

On the way out, she asked, “Did you finish it?”

“Uh huh! I think she’s going to like it.” The door hissed closed behind them.

Chiro pulled out of the hug and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Amber, what were you thinking?” he complained as he shook her by the shoulders. “Why’d you do that?”

Amber put her hand on his head. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry, stop, please. Ughh…”

Chiro huffed a breath out through his nose. “Amber, you scared me half to death. Please never do that again! Promise me! Promise me you’ll never use that kind of power again!”

Amber smiled. “I admit, trying to heal a big machine like that wasn’t my best idea. I’m sorry I made you worry about me.” She rubbed his cheek soothingly. “I wanted to help, and I had a feeling that my healing powers could do something, so I tried. It was too much.” She took a deep breath. “I’m so, so sorry, Chiro. I promise, I promise I’ll never overuse my healing powers ever again.”

Chiro nodded in agreement and squished her tight in another hug. Amber sighed and put her chin on his head.

The door whooshed open and Chiro sat up hastily. He banged his head on the oxygen tube that was still attached to his sister’s face “Ow!” He rubbed the top of his head gingerly as all five Monkeys entered the room.

Amber turned to face her new visitors. “Hello. Thanks so much for taking care of me.”

Gibson reached up and Amber bent down so he could undo the strap holding the oxygen mask to her face. The girl took a few deep breaths and pressed a hand to her head. “We wouldn’t have had to take care of you if you hadn’t done such a ridiculously irresponsible thing,” the blue Monkey said with a touch of concern.

“I don’t think I meant to go that far… it just ran out of my control and wouldn’t stop until it was all healed. It was… it was so scary. At first…” She looked down at her hands still shaking almost imperceptibly in her lap. “At first it was fine. I mended all the armor plating—it’s just like skin, right? To mend a cut? It was a lot of cuts, though, and the blast damage from the explosion ruined a lot of it… so I had to pour a lot more energy into it than I usually do for Chiro’s injuries. And then the cannon was messed up, and I hoisted it up to where it was supposed to be, mended the wiring and the focusing mirrors, that took a lot. By the time I got to that point, though, I was running out of power. And it… it started feeling less like I was putting my energy into the machine and more like it was being drawn out of me, like with a vacuum? I tried to pull my hands away from the Torso Tank, and I couldn’t. They were stuck like I’d glued them there, and that scared me more. It wasn’t finished, the healing wasn’t finished, and… and it wouldn’t let me go until it was all fixed. I could feel… I could feel even some of my own life force being sucked out, at the end… my heart was beating so fast but my whole body was weakening… oh, stars.” Amber put her face in her hands.

“I saw your life force fading, Amber. It very nearly went out.” Antauri told the girl quietly. “It was a frightening experience I hope to never have again.”

Amber raised her eyes to the little group gathered around her and shook her head. “I’ve caused you all so much grief, I’m so, so sorry…”

“Runs in the family, I guess,” Sparx cracked.

Nova folded her arms and smiled. “You have to be more careful next time, okay?”

“No, I’m never doing it again,” Amber said. “I made a promise.” She looked over at her brother. “And I always keep my promises.”

Otto put his hand over hers and looked up at her. “Are you okay now?”

“I have a bit of a headache…”

Okay, it was more like a regular to large size headache, but she didn’t want them to worry more.

“…but other than that, I think… I think I’m all right.”

Gibson rubbed his chin and looked at Amber thoughtfully. “Well, you have recovered far more quickly than I projected, Amber, and I am surprised by that but very thankful. I believe that a good night’s sleep is all that is still needed for you to make a full, complete recovery, but I will check your vitals in the morning just to be sure.”

“Thank you, Gibson,” Amber said. “I feel better, I just… yeah, maybe a little more sleep would do it.”

“You’re really gonna make her sleep in sick bay by herself?” Nova said, raising her brow.

Gibson held up his hands. “Well, standard operating procedure is that the patient remains in sick bay until they are recovered enough to leave. Accordingly, she should sleep here where she is near the equipment.”

"Can she sleep in my room?” Chiro begged. “Please, Gibson? It’s more comfortable, and she’ll be with me if anything happens.”

The blue Monkey looked up at Chiro and the boy’s eyes were wide and begging. “Great scott, Chiro. Very well.” He sighed. “If you can find enough supplies to make her comfortable, I will allow it.”

Chiro’s whole face lit up. “You mean it?”

“I mean, I won’t let her go without precautions, but she seems to be in much better condition, enough to be moved, at any rate.”

Amber threw her legs over the side of the table. “You guys are really nice, and I appreciate the offer to stay, but I think I should just be going home.” She slid off the table but as soon as her feet hit the floor the room suddenly started spinning around her. She grabbed for the table and Chiro rushed to her side. With her brother holding her up, the room gradually stabilized. “Oh… ah… okay. There might be a slight chance that I’m not totally better yet.”

“That’s what we’re saying,” Chiro said, wrapping her arm over his shoulder. “There’s no way I’m letting you go home tonight. Come on.”

“We’ll help ya get everything,” Otto said as he, Nova, Sparx, and Antauri scampered out of sick bay. Gibson stayed behind to get Amber’s equipment ready. Chiro helped his sister out the door, across the room and into the transport tube.

“Chiro?” Amber asked.

“Hmm?”

“Nova was right, it was a stupid thing to do. I… I know what I meant to do, just fix a couple of things, just so it wouldn’t take Otto so long to do repairs… but the power just ran away from me, and I was so scared and I couldn’t stop…”

“Sis, you already explained, it’s okay, don’t worry. Your intentions were good but you just didn’t pull it off so well.”

“I’m so, so, _so_ sorry, Chiro.”

“It’s _okay_ , I’m just, like, really glad you didn’t die.”

“I… I just wanted to help… it was reckless and I did make you worry, I shouldn’t have done it…”

“You didn’t know what was gonna happen.” Chiro squeezed her waist as the elevator stopped on the bedroom hallway level.

“No…”

“I’m here for you, and so are the Monkeys.” Chiro grinned. “I’m surprised they took to you as fast as they did, but they seem to really like you.”

Sparx stuck his head out of Chiro’s room up the hallway. “Hurry up, kid, what’s taking so long?”

“I’ll be right there, one second!” Chiro shouted back.

Walking slowly, it took Chiro a while to get to his bedroom. By the time he got there, the Monkeys had already set up some kind of foam mattress covered with a big piece of linen. Otto stumbled in behind them with a stack of blankets taller than he was.

“Woah-oh- _ahh!_ ”

The green Monkey tripped on the carpet and dropped the blankets, making a huge pile on the floor. He popped up from underneath the pile, a blue blanket hanging over his head. “Whoops.” He scratched his head sheepishly.

Nova and Sparx scrambled to pick up all the fallen blankets and Chiro picked out a handful for his sister. She sat down on the foam gingerly and took her shoes off.

Gibson moved over in front of her and she turned her attention toward him. “All right, Amber, I have a few sensors that I will need to place on you in order to monitor your vitals as you sleep.” The girl nodded and Gibson gently taped a sensor to the inside of her wrist and the side of her neck. He stood back and examined her. “Well?”

Amber ran her thumb over the plastic disc of the sensor. “I can’t even really feel it.”

“If your vitals should happen to spike or drop abruptly overnight, the sensors will emit a loud frequency that should wake Chiro or myself. I doubt anything would happen, but I would rather be prepared.” The blue Monkey sighed and Amber smiled at him.

The Monkeys all looked at each other and Antauri nodded. “Amber, we have something special for you. Otto?”

The green Monkey approached the girl, taking out something silver. “Here!”

He put it in her hand and she looked at it closely. It was a necklace, a little silver monkey face with emerald green eyes dangling from a silver chain. “It’s beautiful,” she breathed. She looked up at Otto, eyes wide with wonder. “You made this?”

Otto grinned excitedly. “Yeah, but you didn’t even see the best part yet.”

“There’s a best part?”

Sparx grabbed Chiro by the sleeve and dragged him out of the room. “We’re gonna test it, come on, kid.” The door hissed closed behind them.

“It is not only a lovely piece of jewelry, but a communication device as well. It is similar to the one we made for Chiro when he first came to us,” Gibson explained.

Amber tilted her head. “A comm?”

“Try to speak with Sparx or Chiro,” Antauri requested.

Amber put the necklace in her hand and squinted at it. “Ahh… how…? I don’t want to break it…”

Otto pressed in close to explain. “The whole face is a button, that’s the main comm line. Press that and then just say who you wanna talk with. The left eye is a holo-recorder and the right eye is the playback for the holo-recorder. And it’s got two little ears here and here, if you twist one of them it makes the volume go up and down.”

“Whoof. Okay.” Amber gingerly pressed her thumb down to the center of the monkey’s face and it beeped. “Umm… Sparx? SPRX-77?”

Sparx’s voice came through the silver charm. “Hey, you remembered my name! I read you loud and clear, Amber. Pretty cool, huh?”

Amber inhaled with surprise and her head shot up, looking around at all the Monkeys grinning at her.

“Although, Amber,” Nova began. “We’re gonna have to have to teach you a bit about comm calls—like when you start a call you usually say your name, so you’d say ‘Amber to Sparx.’ And if it’s urgent, you’d say something like ‘come in’ or ‘please respond.’ You’ll get used to it, it only took Chiro like two days to remember it all.”

Amber nodded. “Can I talk to Chiro on this?”

“Try it,” Otto said, grinning.

Taking a deep breath, Amber pressed the monkey face and it again beeped. “Amber to Chiro, please come in.”

Chiro’s voice crackled out through the comm. “Chiro here. Wow, sis, I had no idea the Monkeys were gonna do this for you, but I’m really glad they did.”

“You didn’t know?”

“Nope.”

“It was meant to be a surprise,” Antauri said, the corner of his mouth turning up.

“I see,” Amber said, leaning her elbow on her knee, the comm dangling from between her fingers.

“And if you need all of us at once, just say ‘Monkey Team’ or ‘Hyperforce’ instead of giving all our names,” Gibson told her. “The system has been set up that way for a long time.”

“Now you can talk with us whenever you want!” Otto said.

“Within reason,” Gibson added firmly.

The door swished open again and Chiro and Sparx entered the room. Chiro knelt by his sister and Sparx rejoined the little Monkey group. “I… I don’t understand,” Amber said, looking at the little silver monkey that dangled from the necklace. “You didn’t have to do this, Chiro and I already have comms, and… and…”

_They’re Shuggazoom’s heroes. Why would they want me… to talk with them?_

“Well, we… discussed it,” Antauri began, the other Monkeys nodding. “We talked about it among ourselves, and also with Chiro, while you were… recovering. And, seeing that you indeed possess the Power Primate, and that you are the family of our very own leader,” Chiro nodded too, “we have elected to make you an honorary member of the Hyperforce.”

Amber gasped. “Are… are you sure…? That’s such… I mean…”

Sparx shrugged. “I dunno, Chiro made us do it.”

“Sparx!” Chiro admonished. “I didn’t make you guys do _anything_ , Antauri came up with it!”

“But it’s something you wanted,” Sparx said, pressing the point.

Chiro’s ears turned pink. “Yeah, so?”

“We could always use more hands and hearts in the battle against evil,” Antauri said wisely. “And besides, you are Chiro’s family, and, in a sense, ours as well.”

Okay, so she’d kind of been adopted. All right then.

“Are you ready to side with us against Skeleton King?” Gibson asked.

Amber looked down at her hands in her lap. “I don’t know. I can’t fight. I can’t even really use whatever powers I have. I’d be pretty useless fighting evil.”

“Aww, come on, Amber, don’t be like that,” Otto said. “We’ll help you.”

“Yeah, I’m gonna train you to be the toughest fighter,” Nova said, turning one of her hands into her Lady Tomahawk.

“You know, we did have to train Chiro a lot at first, and he is still learning,” Gibson noted.

“But Amber, you are not a full-time team member,” Antauri let her know. “You have duties and responsibilities in Shuggazoom already, and so we would only call on you if there’s a need.”

“Can we worry about the details tomorrow?” Sparx asked, yawning behind his hand. “I’m wiped out.”

Amber clasped the necklace around her neck carefully and the tiny monkey face bumped against her collarbone. “Thank you so much. This really, really means a lot to me.”

“I’m really glad you liked it!” Otto said.

“I love it. I’ll treasure it forever, I promise.”

She laid down on the mattress and realized that she was missing something. “Oh, wait…”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot a pillow, sorry.” Chiro picked up one of his own off his bed and threw it in his sister’s general direction.

It hit Antauri in the face.

“Holy Shuggazoom, I’m so sorry, Antauri!” he yelped.

Antauri removed the pillow from his face and handed it to Amber. “If only you were that accurate during target practice,” he deadpanned, raising one brow.

“We should go,” Gibson told the other Monkeys. “She needs to rest.”

The Monkeys filed out of the room single file, but Antauri hung back. “You should also get ready for bed, Chiro.”

Chiro puffed out a breath. “Yes, Antauri.”

Amber was so tired that she fell asleep almost instantly. When Chiro came back to climb into bed, she was already out cold. He smiled as he looked at his sister curled up in a ball underneath the wad of blankets. Her sensors were emitting a barely audible hum that told him that she was all right. He climbed under his own covers and hugged his pillow. She was alive and safe and here with him, and that was all he needed right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What a rollercoaster ride that was! Originally I wanted to split this chapter into two more manageable chunks, but I tried splitting it in a bunch of different places but none seemed to work well. So you get a very long chapter! XD 
> 
> So yes, the team knows about Amber now, she has been welcomed as a team member, and in future chapters we get to explore what that means for her as we move on in season 1. Before that, though, the next chapter is a flashback chapter to the time where Amber was raising Chiro on her own. There's going to be lots of cute sibling shenanigans and also a little tiny bit of angst, so look forward to that!
> 
> I always accept questions or comments also on tumblr at[ sweetcircuits!](https://sweetcircuits.tumblr.com) I'm working very hard on this story and I'm always excited to answer questions and things!


	3. in which love keeps a family together but destiny pulls it apart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is another very long but very important chapter; this one is a flashback chapter where we get to see how Amber does at raising Chiro on her own! This chapter begins four months before _Chiro's Girl_ and the series' beginning (so chronologically it's before Chapter 1). It chronicles the last month of school before summer vacation for both Amber and Chiro, and something very interesting happens to Chiro on his last day of school...

_~4 months earlier~_

“Amber Rinelli to the office, please!”

Amber’s head shot up, all thoughts of pre-calc instantly forgotten. _Oh, Shuggazoom._ She raised her hand tentatively.

Her teacher nodded wearily in her direction. “Get your things and go, Amber. Don’t make Miss Hock call you twice.”

Amber shoved her worksheets into her binder, aware of every face in the room locked on her. Her face burned as she gathered up her textbooks and binders and left the room as quickly as she could.

She made her way up down to the bottom floor, where the office and the front door were. The halls were deserted, given that it was still study period, and her heart sank down further in her chest with every hollow step in the empty hallways.

At last she rounded the corner to the office and her feet stopped short. Chiro was sitting in a chair next to the office door, with his hands shoved deep in his pockets, slouching in his chair. _Stars above._ That was a _bad day_ indicator. Now she was worried about why she had been called.

She knocked on the plexiglass window and the secretary opened it. “Hi, Amber. Mrs. Maisely needs you to sign Chiro out and take him home.”

Her eyes widened and snapped over to her brother, who pointedly did not look at her.

“What happened?” she asked.

Miss Hock sighed and handed her the discipline notice. She skimmed the green slip. _Incident, Mr. Derrick’s Pre-Chemistry._ Amber exhaled a wheeze and gave it back. At least it wasn’t an actual demerit slip. But something had happened, and apparently it was bad enough that it would be good for Chiro to just go home. She sighed and shifted her books to her other arm. “All right. If I take him home, though, I’m going to miss PE next period.”

Miss Hock made a note. “I’ll tell your teacher you won’t be there. It’s all right.”

Amber took a deep breath and signed the form she was handed. _Relation to student: Sister. Reason for early release: Discipline. Signature._ She dotted the last “i” in her last name with a little more force than usual and handed the form back gingerly. Miss Hock nodded and stamped the form. “Chiro you may go,” she said, standing up and looking out her sliding window at the boy in question. “Your sister’s here.”

“Thank you, Miss Hock,” Amber said, brows pinched in apology. “I’m so sorry for whatever happened…”

The secretary sighed. “Well, it is a stressful quarter for the students. It was bound to happen eventually. I will let Principal Maisley know that you went home with him and that you talked with him.”

“If you could tell her that, that would be so nice, thank you…”

Miss Hock shoved her glasses back onto her thin nose. “I know it is difficult for you, Amber. I admire your tenacity despite… well, despite everything that has happened to you two.” She smiled. “Well, it is the weekend. I hope things will cool off over the next two days and he will be ready to go on Monday.”

“We’ll do our best. I appreciate your kindness, Miss Hock. Thanks again.”

“Have a good weekend, kids,” the secretary said, waving at the both of them.

Chiro stood up, slung his white book bag over his shoulder, and finally met his sister’s eyes. He was frustrated, she could read it in every bit of his expression, from his knitted eyebrows to his lips pressed tightly together. But there was also worry in his eyes, and he just looked like he felt awful that she had to be dragged into this. Amber sighed. “Come on. I need my books.” Chiro was definitely going to be the death of her.

They hiked back up to her locker that was in hallway 1 and shoved her backpack full of her homework. Pre-calc that she hadn’t finished. History. Physics. She’d finished literature, thankfully. With a tiny _zippp_ she closed her bag and slid her arms into the straps. Chiro had watched her the whole time leaning against the locker next to hers, not saying one word. Amber inhaled and exhaled the breath in a sigh. “Okay. Let’s go home, buddy.” His expression softened a little and the corner of his mouth turned up.

They walked down the big stairs that led to the street and began to head home, side by side on the sidewalk. Chiro finally made some sort of sound, a big sigh that punctuated the silence.

“Do you… want to talk about it?” Amber nudged gently. “Why I was told to take you home? I mean, I’m not complaining, all I’m missing is PE and I hate PE. But still, you must have gotten in trouble…”

“They didn’t tell you, did they?” Chiro sighed. “Miss Hock just told you to take me home, not why?”

Amber shook her head. “I skimmed over the discipline slip. Apparently there was an incident in Mr. Derrick’s chem class.” There was a beat of silence. “I hope it wasn’t anything dangerous with chemicals… nobody got hurt, right?”

Chiro threw his head back and stared moodily at the sky for a few moments. A groan wrenched out from between his teeth and Amber raised her eyebrows. “Glenny was making fun of my science fair project. And BT broke one of my graduated cylinders and wrenched the setting board the wrong way.”

Amber sighed. Chiro was the smartest eighth-grader she knew, and that wasn’t only because she was a _tiny_ bit biased because he was her brother. He was a very intelligent kid. But he attracted trouble. BT and Glenny had been causing trouble for him ever since they were in primary school together. And he’d never managed to catch a break from them. Their last names were all in the last half of the alphabet so the three of them were always in the same classroom together, every year, without fail. Amber pressed her lips together.

“Are you going to say that it was partly my fault?” Chiro griped, interrupting her thoughts. “Because it wasn’t. They just didn’t like the fact that mine was working and theirs wasn’t.”

Amber took a deep breath. “Well… if you got pulled out of class… that means that something did happen, and Mr. Derrick… didn’t consider you totally blameless in the situation.” She looked over at her brother, her brows peaked with worry. “Did you… fight back?”

Chiro stomped his foot. “Sis…” he whined.

“Chiro, I’m sorry. I know you hate when I ask and I hate asking, geez, I _hate_ asking, but if we want to keep our family together… we’re both going to have to do things we don’t want to do. I hate assuming badly of you, but that’s why you have to be honest with me. I can’t take your side against the teachers if you don’t tell me everything.” Their shoes clacked loudly on the asphalt as they crossed the street.

“Ugh, I HATE when you say that. Fine.” He tugged at his backpack strap frustratedly. “When BT broke my graduated cylinder I saw red. I yanked the board back out of his hands and yelled at both of them and called them jerks.” He loosened his backpack off of one shoulder, leaving it dangling by the other. “Of course the cylinder glass shattered all over the place and BT cut his hand and it was bleeding, so he went to the nurse with Glenny. Of course. And then I had to clean everything up and Mr. Derrick sent me to the office.”

“Oh, Chiro…” Amber groaned. Okay, so it was partly his fault, he did yell at them and he had yanked his project away from them, which probably was how the setting board got broken. But the two boys had started it, had broken some of Chiro’s equipment, and Chiro was the one who got in most of the trouble. Of course.

“Are you mad?” Chiro asked softly, his anger mellowed out just a little. “I didn’t mean for that to happen, honest. I just got so… so upset, and angry, and I couldn’t…”

Amber wove his fingers between hers and sighed. “No, Chiro. I’m not mad. A little sad, maybe. I am glad you got off as easily as you did, because yelling in class and breaking equipment, even if it wasn’t your fault, could get earn you a ton of demerit slips.” She remembered sitting at the dining room table with her head in her hands after a particularly rough week, a pen between her fingers and four of Chiro’s demerit slips to sign in front of her. “And I really don’t want to sign any more of those.”

Chiro leaned his head on her shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

“Chiro, I know it’s so frustrating, being in class with them. They seem to have made it their lives’ mission to make yours miserable. I know it hurts when these incidents happen. And I know you hate me telling you this, but I’m going to say it anyway… you have to be the bigger person. You can’t… just… _ugghh_.” She put her forehead in her hand. “It’s not fair. It’s not. I know it’s not. It never is. But you can’t just… go off like that. I can’t keep having you get in trouble. We have weeks, sometimes months when nothing happens, but then we have weeks when every day there’s something.” She looked at him, sighing tiredly. “Chiro, I know you understand this, you _have_ to understand this, since I remind you all the time, but I’ll say it again. I’m still twenty-eight days from being eighteen. I’m not technically your legal guardian until then. So if you keep getting in trouble, social services could still, _theoretically_ , take you away. Even though we have tons of paperwork that Mrs. Hanna cosigned to vouch for me being a willing and able guardian.” She raked her hand through her hair and let out another sigh. “Please try and do better, Chiro. Trust the teachers a bit more. Mr. Derrick’s a nice guy, I’m sure he would have seen it was BT’s fault and reacted accordingly.” She played with her own backpack strap. “Chiro, you’re a _good kid_.” She put emphasis on the last two words. “You’re such a good kid, but you have to have a little more grace under pressure. Promise me you’ll try.”

Chiro sighed. Everything she said was true. It ranged from irritating to downright infuriating what BT and Glenny did sometimes. It wasn’t fair. And he tried to take it all with grace, but it was hard sometimes. “I’m so sorry, sis,” he said again. “I promise I’ll try and get through the rest of the year without any more problems.”

“It’s okay. I love you so much, Chiro,” Amber sighed. “It’s going to be all right. I’ll tell you what. We have some time since it’s the weekend, so if we go to the store and get you some more supplies we can try and get your project fixed right up.”

“Don’t you have homework you have to do?”

Amber waved her hand dismissively. “I don’t have much. Just a history packet that makes me want to rip my hair out, 20 precalc problems and 15 physics problems. And physics is literally formulas, math with ‘application.’” She made quotes with her fingers mockingly. “It’ll take me like two hours, tops.” She tapped her chin with her finger. “Actually, we might even have time to stop for ice cream after we run errands.”

"Promise?” he breathed, eyes huge and bright.

“I promise.” She squeezed him around the shoulders. “I know science fair is really important to you, so I’m going to help you out as much as I’m allowed.”

“It has to be perfect, sis,” Chiro said, grinning excitedly.

“It will be. I promise.”

* * * * * * *

_~two weeks later~_

“Uhhhhh…”

Chiro had his face buried in the mahogany tabletop, papers and books and binders spread out around him like a hurricane had gone through. Amber touched the back of his head gently, running her fingers through the thick black strands.

" _Myhayscoo,”_ he mumbled.

“Try again,” she replied, sipping at the glass of juice she held in her other hand.

He rotated his head toward her, his ear now pressed to the tabletop, and looked up at her imploringly. “I hate school.”

She ran her fingers through his hair some more. “Well, you’ve only got four weeks left of school, and then you’ll be free to do anything you want to do.”

His head shot up off the table. “Really?”

“Within reason.” She put her cup down on the table. “You know the drill. Tell me where you’re going to be and keep your HVS in your pocket, be smart, and you’ll be fine. I’m going to be working, unfortunately.” She winced, because she utterly hated working when Chiro was free, it wasn’t fair to him to not have anyone to spend time with, and she didn’t want him to start thinking she didn’t care enough to spend time with him. She had this problem every summer and it drove her nuts. “But I’ll see what we can do together.” She grinned at him and wiggled her eyebrows. “I smell a Super Quasar cosplay in your future…”

His eyes went wide as plates. “I didn’t think you were serious about that!”

“Well…” she rubbed his hair some more, “if you can stand to be around me in a Moonlight Sailor Princess costume, then I don’t see why you can’t have a Super Quasar one. Zoom Con is the last week of June, so we have…” she counted on her fingers quickly, “10 weeks to get everything ready? Which is good, because I have started exactly nothing yet.”

"Amber, you’re literally the best person to ever exist.”

She smiled at him. “I’m glad you think so. I try.”

“In the meantime, I’m going to get the high score on every game in the arcade!” he announced proudly, holding his pencil like it was a joystick and making _boop-boop_ button pressing noises.

“Yeah, you do that, buddy,” she said, laughing and pushing his shoulder a little.

* * * * * * *

The last month of school passed mostly without incident. Amber caught a cold right before finals but managed to scrape through with 50/50 B’s and A’s. Chiro got an A+ on his science fair project and got all A’s and two B’s—he never was great at language arts and hated history with every fiber of his being. Amber walked in her graduation with her head held high, and Chiro cheered her on from the second row. She got excellence in three of her classes and honor roll to boot. The two of them celebrated with a big dinner, ice cream, and a movie. And as Chiro fell asleep in Amber’s lap, her fingers carding through his hair, she thought to herself that life couldn’t get any better than this.

But of course, fate has a funny way of showing you just how wrong you are. Something happened on Chiro’s last day of school that would change his life, his sister’s life, and the lives of every citizen of Shuggazoom, forever.

* * * * * * *

_Where could he be, where could he be?_

Amber had been home for almost an hour and Chiro was nowhere to be found. She’d checked the entire house, and then she’d called his HVS, and he hadn’t answered. _Mmmm…! Did he get kidnapped, did he get run over, did he get held back at school, is he someplace bad, is he injured?_ She knew she was being irrational, he was probably fine, he was smart, but her anxiety was in control and her mind was racing. This happened every once in a while, and it always turned out he got stuck back at school or he stopped at the store or the arcade. Someplace normal and easily explained. It was fine.

But… there had been a moment, about fifteen minutes ago… a moment where she had felt a warm pulse in her chest, and her whole body had gone very tingly. And she could have sworn, even though it was most likely her imagination, that she had heard a thunderous roar echo inside her mind. All those things together had scared her, and she had fallen to her knees, her hands clutched to her chest, mind racing. But just as quickly as she had felt that pulse of warmth, it was gone again, and the absence of it puzzled her almost as much as the appearance of it.

She had reached out through her bond to touch her brother’s mind, and she had felt… something from him. Something new. Something warm and strong, something that felt… a little bit like the warmth she’d felt from her own heart. And that was puzzling also.

But Chiro hadn’t been in pain, and he hadn’t been scared, and that had calmed her down just a little bit.

Amber breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth and her heart slowed its hammering.

_Knock knock knock._

Her hands flew from the dishpan and grabbed a towel and by the time she got out of the kitchen Chiro was closing the front door behind him.

“Chiro!” She flew over to him and knelt down. “Chiro, you scared me half to death, where were you?”

“I’m sorry I didn’t call, something came up.” He put his bookbag down and looked at her with big, shimmering eyes and a wide, bright grin. She could feel his emotions tingling along their bond. Excitement. Happiness. Something very cool had happened and she wasn’t sure what that was or how she should feel about it. “Can I get something to eat? I’m so hungry I could eat a whole elephant.”

That question snapped Amber vaguely back to reality. “Uh, yeah, sure.”

Chiro made himself dinner from leftovers and ate while his sister finished washing the dishes. He seemed to be vibrating with excitement about what had happened, and she had to admit, she was curious about it as well. She sat down at the table and Chiro excitedly began his story.

“You’re probably not going to believe it, sis,” he began sheepishly.

Amber crossed her arms. “Try me, buddy,” she said with a hint of a smile.

“I was walking home from the school party, and there was a can on the sidewalk.”

“I totally believe that,” Amber said, waving her hand. “People leave garbage all over the place.”

“That’s _not_ the part I thought you wouldn’t believe,” Chiro whined.

Amber held out her hands in a halting gesture. “Okay, okay. I’ll shut up. Tell me where you were.”

“I kicked the can, meaning to kick it all the way home so I could throw it out. But I kept kicking it, and it never seemed to go the way I wanted it to, and eventually I found myself on the outskirts of the city, in that balloon fruit grove, do you know where that is?”

Amber most certainly without a shred of doubt knew exactly where that was. “Yes, Chiro.” Her heart began to beat faster.

“I looked around those trees, thinking about maybe picking one and how surprised you’d be for me to bring home a fruit the size of my head!” he laughed. “But then I saw it! An abandoned Super Robot!”

“An abandoned Super Robot?” Amber repeated, for lack of anything else to say.

Chiro nodded excitedly, his smile matching his energy. “It was a huge mecha, and I just wondered, you know… what it was. It was enormous, Amber! Like as big as an office building. It was silver, I think and definitely abandoned, because it had so much moss and stuff growing all over it. I walked over closer to it, just to see it because it was so cool, and one of its feet opened up!”

Amber raised an eyebrow.

“There was a door. In… in the foot. I walked inside it, and the door closed behind me, and it was all dark and kind of spooky. But there was something weird, something telling me to search, like there was something I needed to… needed to see.”

“Like a voice?” Amber asked quietly, fingers twisting in her skirt.

“Yeah. It wasn’t a real voice, though. More like one in my head.”

“A voice in your head.” Amber leaned back and let out a deep sigh. “Please tell me you turned and ran and the only reason you’re so late is because you got held up in traffic.”

“Not… not exactly.”

Amber folded her arms.

“While the voice was calling to me, I saw some lights turn on, and then a little platform lit up with a yellow light. I stepped up onto it and it took me up an elevator shaft.”

Amber’s knees were jittering underneath the table, and she wrapped her ankles around each other to try and stop the motion. She reached for the napkin holder, picked out a napkin, and began folding one with trembling fingers. Chiro’s voice trailed off. “You are listening, right?”

She looked up at him and bit her lip. “Yes, Chiro, I’m listening. Sorry.”

“Doesn’t feel like it,” he muttered.

“I am,” she insisted. “Where did that yellow elevator take you?”

“It took me up to this BIG room, probably…” he looked around the room, “…probably as big as the kitchen and the dining room put together. No, bigger than that. Way bigger. And taller, too! And Amber, Amber, Amber, you’ll _never_ guess what was in that big room.”

“Treasure?”

“Nope.”

“A monster?”

“Not… exactly.”

“Treasure.”

“You guessed that already!”

“I don’t know! Um… a chest with a sword in it?”

“Sis, this isn’t a video game.”

“A big pile of stinky socks, then?”

“Now you’re not even trying.”

“Obviously I’m never going to guess so just tell me, yeesh.”

Chiro took a deep dramatic breath. “Five. Cyborg. Monkeys!” he announced excitedly.

Amber’s face screwed up in disbelief. “What? Cyborg… monkeys?”

“Yeah! There were five of them all in different color tubes, they seemed to be sleeping or in stasis or something. And in the middle of the room there was this BIG console with a HUGE lever with a silver handle.”

“Please tell me you didn’t push the lever, Chiro.”

“I pushed the lever.”

“Did it push all the way down?”

“Of course it pushed all the way down, why wouldn’t it?” Chiro asked, raising an eyebrow.

Amber shook her head. “Never mind.” She took a deep breath to steel herself and looked him over, taking him in from head to toe. Well, if he’d pushed that lever, and he was still whole and sane, then whatever happened probably wasn’t anything bad. “Okay, I’ll bite. What happened?”

“Well, as soon as the lever clicked down into place, it started glowing with this green energy, and it swirled down the metal and up my arm and engulfed me.” Amber’s eyes widened. “It didn’t hurt or even feel hot, it felt warm… and almost welcome. It nestled down deep in my chest, near my heart, and I felt tingly all over. Then the energy made this big noise, long, loud, and echo-y, like… like a roar.”

Amber’s brows crinkled together and the napkin she’d been creasing and re-creasing crumpled in her hand. “What do you mean, it felt welcome?”

“It was weird. Like it felt super strange, alien, like nothing I’d ever felt before, but it didn’t feel bad. It felt good, really good, warm and happy, like it liked me.” He rubbed the back of his neck.

A strange warmth. A power, an energy, that had covered him, bonded itself to him, wound itself around his heart. A… a good power. Her heart thrummed in her chest, but she pushed aside her apprehension. He seemed to be all right, but she’d ask, just to make sure.

Amber stood up and put a hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay, Chiro?”

“The shock kind of wore off,” he admitted. “I think I’m all right.”

“As long as you’re okay.” She kissed him on the forehead and he rubbed it off with his cardigan sleeve. She grinned and turned back toward the kitchen. “Well, it’s over now, so maybe you could—”

Chiro shook his head and reached out his arm. “Amber wait. Something else happened.” His sister stopped and turned back around. “When I pulled the lever down, the tubes opened and the cyborg monkeys woke up.” Her eyes went wide again and she pressed her hand to her mouth. “They… they all got out of their tubes and walked over to me. One of them asked for my name and I told him. They gave me all their names but I don’t remember them all. They talked to me for a while but I told them I had to leave and I got out of there and ran home.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Amber squeezed her eyes shut and waved her hands as if to halt the tide of Chiro’s words. “I think we kind of skipped over the part where a monkey talked to you. And you talked back. And you understood each other.” She raised an eyebrow. We are talking about monkeys, right? Like… monkey monkeys?” She scratched under her arms in a vaguely monkey-like gesture.

“Umm…” Chiro rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah, I think they were actually monkeys. Just monkeys with cybernetic parts. Their arms were metal and I think their heads were metal, too. And yeah, I could understand them. I don’t know why, though.”

Amber rubbed her temple tiredly. “Okay, that happened.”

“There is one other thing, sis.”

The young woman put her forehead in her hand. “What else?” _What else could there possibly be?_

“When I was leaving, the black monkey asked me if I could come back tomorrow to see them again. Can I?”

Amber wiped her bangs out of her eyes on both sides, holding her hair tight in her fists. “Well… I guess since you woke them up then you have a responsibility to at least visit them. Okay.”

“Thank you, Amber.” He stood up and hugged her and she put her chin on his head. “You’re taking this pretty well. I thought you’d be freaking out a lot more.”

_Wish you knew, Chiro._

“Admittedly, this is the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to you. But I have a feeling that I should trust you on this.”

She could feel his grin against her collarbone. “I love you, sis.”

“Love you, too, Chiro.” She squeezed him tight against her.

* * * * * * *

Chiro continued to visit the Robot Monkeys every day for a few hours at a time. He helped them clean up and organize their Super Robot and got to know them a little better. The second week after he’d woken them up, they asked him to move into the Robot with them.

Chiro went home rather in a daze and found his sister at her sewing machine, working on his Sun Riders costume. She took the pins out of her mouth and put them carefully back in her pincushion before asking him what was going on. He seemed to be in some kind of shock and she was a little weirded out by it. She hoped it wasn’t anything too crazy, she was a little busy with both work and getting their costumes ready. She was mostly done with the Super Quasar one but she had barely started her own. The dark blue pleated skirt had been pretty easy, the red boots were a piece of cake. The shirt was giving her a lot of trouble, especially at the collar. _And don’t get me started on the bows or the jewelry. I really hope this is all going to be done in time._

“The, uh… the Robot Monkeys asked me to move in with them,” he said a little awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head and grinning sheepishly.

That earned him a sharp, surprised, wide-eyed look from his sister. “Wait. Who’s asking what?” She’d been a tiny bit spaced out thinking about her costume and hadn’t exactly heard the answer to her question.

“It’s the Monkeys. They really want me to move in.”

Amber’s mouth twisted. Chiro had… told her a little bit about the robot monkeys. There were five of them, all different colors, consisting of four guys and one girl. Their names were Antauri, Otto, Sparx, Gibson, and Nova. They’d showed him all around the inside of the big Super Robot. They were very nice to Chiro during all his visits, asked him a bunch of questions and answered all his. But now they were asking… such a big, crazy thing of him. This was completely out of left field. What… what did they want with Chiro? She took a deep breath, sewed another couple of inches’ worth of stitches, and voiced that question.

“They said they want to train me in the Power Primate,” he answered truthfully. It was exactly what Antauri, the black Monkey, had asked of him. He’d gained that mysterious power when he’d awakened them, and apparently it was something that needed to be honed and trained. They needed him.

“Power Primate,” his sister murmured as she continued hemming the orange glove. “Isn’t that your mystical monkey power thing?”

“Yeah, that.” Chiro nodded. “And they think it would be easier to do that if I lived with them.”

Amber snipped off the threads on the edge of the wrist part of the glove, handed it to her brother, and pulled out its match. She nibbled on her bottom lip as she maneuvered the edge of the glove under the foot of the sewing machine.

“The Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce…” Chiro mumbled under his breath as he put the glove on, wiggling his fingers and examining the fit.

“The what?” Amber sat up straight and for the second time looked at him with eyes gone wide.

Chiro repeated the phrase, cheeks reddening a bit with embarrassment. “It’s what they call themselves. Their team name.”

“Ah.” Something clicked in Amber’s head and she stood up. “Wait, I think I remember reading something about them in the history almanac.” She jogged down the stairs with Chiro sliding down the banister behind her. She grabbed the thin book entitled _The Almanac of Shuggazoomian History_ out from under the coffee table and flipped to the index. “Super… here it is.” She flipped to the indicated page and found a three-paragraph essay on Chiro’s monkeys.

~ ~ ~

_After Captain Shuggazoom disappeared fifty years ago, his enemies remained, eager to raze Shuggazoom City in his absence. These six months were very dark in Shuggazoom’s history. But one day, a great and powerful Super Robot touched down in the middle of the city, piloted by the Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce. They were cyborg monkeys, each different in color and in weapon specialty. They piloted a great Super Robot that had the ability to split into separate ships, which were then used to defend the City from many great and mighty perils._

_They fought for us, against those who wished us harm. After a long struggle, they defeated our enemies, Master Mondragon and Lady Morgue, among others, and guarded our city against their return. They ushered in an era of peace, and Shuggazoom continues to enjoy that era of peace to this day. But after four years of protecting our city, the day came that they disappeared… in the same way that their predecessor did._

_What has happened to the Hyperforce? No one knows for sure. Some have told tales of a round red spaceship that hovered over the Hyperforce’s Super Robot a short time before they disappeared. Perhaps they left Shuggazoom. Perhaps they were abducted by the strange red spacecraft. Perhaps they are in hiding, waiting for the day when Shuggazoom should need them again. Whatever the case may be, we are in their debt for defeating our enemies and granting us this time of peace that we should never take for granted._

_~ ~ ~_

“Ah,” she said again, faintly. She remembered Mrs. Hanna talking about how she remembered that at some point in the past there were colorful monkey superheroes protecting Shuggazoom. It tallied that the two groups were one and the same, then.

Amber leaned back on the couch and rubbed her eyes, leaving the almanac opened on the table. Chiro sat on the arm of the recliner and waited for her to speak. After a long moment, she opened her eyes and looked at her brother. “Don’t they know you already have a home? That you live with me?”

“It didn’t come up,” Chiro said truthfully. “I don’t know where they think I live.”

“Well… maybe you should tell them, then. I think it would be easier if you kept visiting them, and if they want to train you, they can still do that, I don’t mind.” It was just like every other one of his extracurricular activities, she reasoned. It wasn’t anything to be really worried about.

“Okay.” Chiro nodded. “I’ll mention it to Antauri.”

The next day’s visit did not go as smoothly as they’d planned. Chiro rushed home, breathless, plowing in the door as his sister was putting away her keys. “Amber!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, what happened?”

Chiro bent over, hands on his knees, breathing hard, and Amber waited while he caught his breath. After a moment he stood up, let out a long sigh, and met her gaze. “When I got there, Gibson, the blue Monkey, he met me, and he took me to the main room. Antauri had this big presentation made up on the big screen… like they were worried I was going to say no or something.”

Amber snorted and leaned on the foyer table.

“They’d been scanning out into space, looking for any threats to Shuggazoom, because, apparently, that’s what they’re for. They’re heroes that protect Shuggazoom.”

“We knew that though, that’s what the history almanac said,” Amber replied, raising an eyebrow.

“Okay, yeah. Just wanted to make sure you knew that.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “They were scanning out into the cosmos and they found something very dangerous, a very, very evil presence that they’d never seen before.” He looked up at her, eyes wide. “From what the Monkeys can tell, he might be coming for Shuggazoom.”

Amber inhaled sharply.

“They don’t know if he is. He’s not near Shuggazoom, not yet, anyway. But the Monkeys, especially Antauri, the black one, they’re all worried that Shuggazoom might be one of the next worlds he comes for. And they want to be ready, they want to be prepared, just in case that happens.” Chiro took a deep breath. “And that means… that means they need me. I have the Power Primate, that same power they have, and they need me to help them fight back against this evil.”

Amber pressed a hand to her forehead and tried to absorb all this.

“Amber, there’s two things I’m worried about.” He held up one finger. “One, I didn’t end up telling Antauri that I live with you, but I think that’s just as well. If this enemy’s as dangerous as Gibson’s scans have shown and as Antauri says he might be… then I would just as soon keep you out of harm’s way.”

She looked down at him, eyes full of fear. Her whole body was locked in the grip of that fear, white knuckles clenching onto the foyer table until they ached.

“And two.” He held up a second finger, and met her eyes, his own wide and hopeful. “Sis, I want to help them. I want to be a hero, to help protect Shuggazoom. It’s my home.”

Amber drew her arms around herself tightly, as though to protect herself from all the ramifications of what Chiro had just told her. “And if I said no… would you still go with them?”

Chiro’s eyes blew wide with surprise and fear. “Amber! Amber, that’s not fair! You can’t… can’t ask me to choose between obeying you and helping them! The city needs them, and they need me!” He grabbed her sleeve, fingers trembling, eyebrows pinched with shock. “I’ve always obeyed you, haven’t I? Haven’t I always done everything you’ve asked of me? But this is bigger than me, bigger than both of us. To protect our city, to protect every Shuggazoomian citizen… they need my help. _Please_ , Amber.”

Amber pressed her lips together and looked down at her brother. He had their dad’s wanderlust and bravery in him. He had their mom’s undeniable desire for justice and desire to protect those he cared about. And all those things were mixed together with a heavy helping of his superhero role models that were the Sun Riders. Hadn’t she always believed there was something special about him? Hadn’t she always told him he had a kind, brave, good heart? Hadn’t she always let him know, with certainty, that he would do great things when he was older? And this opportunity had fallen in his lap. And he was leaping at the chance to take it, to do and be everything he ever wanted.

“You want to do this, don’t you?” she asked, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that that was indeed the case.

“It’s been my dream to be a hero, ever since I was little. You know that.” He looked down at his shoes. “I want to do this more than I ever wanted anything in my entire life.”

Amber took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Give me some time. I will let you know my answer before you go back and see them again.”

 _That’s not a no!_ Chiro’s face split into an excited grin and he turned and pounded up the stairs to change his clothes.

Amber sighed and rubbed her temple, head swirling with aching questions she had to soon decide answers to.

* * * * * * *

Amber didn’t get much sleep that night. She stayed up, turned the lamps on, sewed Chiro’s Super Quasar costume, and thought hard.

She had two trains of thought both running at steel-melting speed. _Yes, go,_ or _no, stay_. She hated both options. And usually when she couldn’t decide what to do, she would either do both or nothing. But she couldn’t do that now. She had to make a choice.

She knew this was all he ever wanted. And it was amazing and fortunate that such an opportunity would come to him. She wanted him to be happy, and she knew that being a part of this team would give him an amazing opportunity, and in a way, fulfill his dream. Who was she to deny him this? How could she stand in his way?

 _I’m his sister,_ she reminded herself. _His authority figure._ She shook her head and ran the hem of the magenta waistband under the foot of the sewing machine. She wanted him to be happy, yes, but she also just wanted him to be safe. She’d lost everyone else she’d ever cared about. Her grandparents. Her parents. One of her friends. She clung to Chiro, because he was everything she had left. Being a hero came with so much danger… and Chiro’s monkeys had said that the enemy that they might soon face was indeed very dangerous. And it was the Monkeys’ responsibility to oppose that danger and protect the city.

She tried to wrap her mind around the concept of Chiro being responsible for keeping the city safe. Her brother. Her little brother would be a hero keeping them all from harm. Her hands shook and she stopped the sewing machine because she didn’t want to stab her fingers. She leaned back in the chair and put her face in her hands.

_If I don’t let him go, we would all be in danger, and we could all die._

_If I let him go, he would be in danger, and he could die._

It really came down to if she was willing to possibly sacrifice her whole city for the purpose of keeping her brother by her side.

Chiro was everything to her. He was her whole world. She loved him so much that she couldn’t imagine a life in which she wasn’t at his side.

_(Of course, she knew that there was a likelihood that if she forbade him from going, he would disobey and go anyway, and he would just hate her and she didn’t want that, either.)_

She sighed and turned the waistband inside out and began sewing one of the seams. He had the Monkeys, though, didn’t he? The almanac had said they were superheroes, with proficiency in weapons, and they had that huge mecha that they used to fight larger enemies, like the Sun Riders’ Nebutron. They were heroes, they had the experience. They wanted to teach Chiro how to be a hero, how to master the power that had somehow been given to him. They would protect him. They would be with him. He wouldn’t be alone.

* * * * * * *

The next morning Amber had red rings under her eyes, but she’d come to a decision she could live with.

She sat Chiro down on the couch with her after breakfast and took his hands in hers. “All right, Chiro. I’ve thought about it.”

He looked up at her with his blue eyes just like her own and she wanted to cry.

“I want to keep you safe, Chiro. That’s all I want. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. But… if that enemy is coming, if Shuggazoom is in trouble, and the Monkey Team is the only thing standing between us and destruction… then I think Shuggazoom deserves the best possible chance to survive.” She took a deep breath. “If the city needs them, and they need you, then there isn’t much of a choice to be had.”

Chiro’s breath caught. “Amber!”

“I’m so afraid, Chiro. I don’t want you to be hurt. Hero stuff is so dangerous, and I’m so afraid to let you do this. But I… I don’t want to stop you.” Her brows pinched together and she squeezed his hands. “I give you permission to move in with the Monkey Team.”

“You mean it?”

“There are conditions attached here, Chiro.” She ran her thumbs over the back of his hands. “You have to call me every single night over the HVS, so I know that you’re all right. Keep in touch with me, and let me know what’s happening.”

“You would know if anything happened to me,” Chiro said softly, and their bond tingled with his sincerity.

“I know,” she said, her voice catching. “I know, Chiro. But I still want to see your face and hear your voice.” She took a deep breath and exhaled it softly, shoving down the exhaustion and fear and rising tides of emotions Chiro didn’t need to see. “If you’re going to help the Monkey Team, if you’re going to be a hero yourself, then I can’t stop you. You’re going to protect us, Chiro.” She smiled at him sadly. “You’re going to be a hero.”

He leaned up and hugged her tight around her neck, burying his face in her shoulder. He was excited, she could sense it, but the excitement was buried under thankfulness and love. He loved her so much. That’s why he’d asked, why he told her, why he wanted her involved, when he just as soon could have not done all those things. He cared about her and he respected her. And all of these emotions were so tangible and real and Amber could feel the tears rising up in her throat as she hugged him back, clinging to his shirt tightly.

After a few slow beats he pulled away and tilted his head. “Amber… what are we going to do about you?”

“I think… I think that what you said yesterday is correct.” She rubbed her eyes wearily. “If you’re really going to be fighting a big, powerful, dangerous enemy, then I think it would be better for me to just stay out of your way. Keep me away from the Monkeys, away from the enemies, away from the danger.”

“Away from me.”

Amber’s heart twisted like a wrung-out towel. “I know. I know. I’m not happy about that… but I think it’s the best way to go about it. What do you think?”

“Of course I want to keep you safe, too,” he answered, putting his chin in his hand. “I don’t want you in the middle of this, either. I have these powers, apparently, but you don’t have anything like that. You could get hurt.” He looked up at her. “I guess… yeah, you’re right. It would be better for you to stay away. But if I call you every night, then it wouldn’t be too bad. I’ll still see you, and the Monkeys wouldn’t have to know about it.”

Amber let out a heavy sigh. “Okay. It’s a secret, then.”

“Promise,” Chiro said, smiling.

“Promise,” Amber replied, gathering him up in another hug.

Chiro wriggled against her collarbone. “What do you want me to tell Antauri, then? Am I moving in with them?”

She let him go and sighed. “Well… yeah. Tell them that you’re moving in, that you need some time, but you don’t need help. The last thing we need—”

“—is them coming here,” Chiro finished.

“I’ll help you pack, I guess,” Amber said, sliding her fingers through the stubborn black strands on top of his head. “I’m going to miss you.”

“Me too,” Chiro replied wistfully.

* * * * * * *

Chiro started taking bags of his things to the Super Robot—like his clothes and his action figures and his toiletries. It took a couple of days, he brought one or two bags over every time he visited. The slow process of moving in surprised the Monkeys, though they did not press him hard for details as to why.

The third day after Chiro had accepted the Monkeys’ proposal was his last night at home. He’d gone over to the Super Robot earlier to go over some space issues with Gibson and Otto, to make sure there would be enough room in his designated bedroom. They’d figured it out, thankfully—if Nova moved around the furniture a little bit, everything would fit just fine.

Back at the house, Amber morosely set the table and the oven timer. She wasn’t mad. She couldn’t be. But she was very sad, and she was going to be very lonely, and that itself was something that she was not looking forward to. She could suddenly relate to adults three times her age who were sending their children off to university.

That was an oddly embarrassing metaphor.

The front door opened with a distinct _kascreek_ and all her unease melted away. “Amber, I’m home!” her brother’s voice called.

“In the kitchen!” she yelled back. “Glad you’re back.”

He appeared in the doorway, grinning widely. “Amber, you got me presents! You didn’t have to do that.” She laughed at the way his eyes sparkled with excitement. “I’m really glad you did, though, wow!” She dried her hands on a kitchen towel and checked the oven time for their dinner. “Can I open them? Pleeeeeease?” He knew the longer he dragged out the _please,_ the more likely it was that he would get to open them right away.

“Okay, okay, one second,” she laughed, pressing her thumb to the ‘add minutes’ button on the oven time. “I’m coming.”

He bounded over to the dining room table where she had placed his wrapped boxes. “It’s… you know, just a couple of things since it’s your last day here. I wanted to send you off to your big superhero destiny with some stuff from me.”

Chiro vibrated with the urge to start unwrapping. “Is there an order?”

“Smallest to largest, I guess,” Amber answered, touching her cheek thoughtfully.

“Okay.” He hesitated.

“Geez, Chiro, you can start, go, please. You’re gonna hold up dinner.”

Chiro grinned at her and grabbed the smallest present, tearing eagerly at the red paper. He lifted the lid off and pulled out an orange scarf. “Aww. Thanks, Amber.”

Amber rubbed the back of her neck. “It’s just something to keep you warm if it’s cold in the Super Robot. I’m not sure how the Monkeys regulate the air temperature or like, what temperature they like to keep it, so I gave you that, just in case.”

“You never know. I might be glad I had it. Thank you! Did you make it?” He held it up to the light. “It looks like the same color as the shoulder pads from the Super Quasar costume.”

“Yeah, I made it with the leftover fabric from the gloves and shoulder pads.”

Chiro set the scarf aside and pulled out the next box. He lifted the lid off the box and his whole face lit up. “Amber! You didn’t!”

His sister crossed her arms and grinned.

Chiro gingerly lifted a new pair of sneakers out of the box. “Sis, these are exactly the ones I wanted, the converses! Thank you!”

“Well, you know how you would usually get a new pair of shoes for the new school year, and you’d wear them out throughout the school year and the summer? I didn’t want to wait for September to get you your new pair. I figured you would need them now. And, yeah, they are the specific ones you asked for, Chiro. I splurged. Hope they’re all right.”

“Of course they’re all right, I love them! Thank you!”

Chiro shoved the shoebox across the table and slid the biggest box toward himself. He ripped off the paper in long white strips and pulled at the ribbon. At last he tugged the lid off the box and looked inside. “Oh, Amber!” His face fell. “Oh… Amber.” He pulled out an orange helmet with a red visor, a pair of orange gloves, a white shirt and matching pants, a magenta waistband, and a pair of magenta boots.

Amber clasped her hands in front of her stomach and sighed. “I know…” she said softly. “I’m now realizing that you probably won’t get the chance to wear it. I’m so sorry.”

“Sis, don’t be sorry. It’s so nice, look.” He snapped the magnetic visor off the helmet and attached it again with a tiny _snick_.

“I didn’t get to finish it all the way. The shirt’s too long, since I didn’t have time to hem it right, and I didn’t get to dye the shirt or the pants or the boots with that orange dye you picked up for me.” She sighed, a deep, sorrowful sound that came from way down deep in her chest. “I thought that even though it wasn’t done… that you would want to take it with you. Maybe you’ll be able to use it for something.” She waved her hand and tossed her hair behind her shoulder. “It’s not doing me any good sitting around here without you, anyway.”

“You spent a lot of time on it this week, didn’t you?” Chiro said with a knowing look.

“I… needed to work on something to try and focus on something other than being sad that you were moving out,” she admitted.

“Don’t say it like _that_.”

“It’s basically what’s happening, though.”

“Oh!” He turned around in his chair. “Are you going to Zoom Con without me, then?”

Amber hemmed. “I don’t know. It won’t be any fun without you, and I don’t want to go by myself. I might just see if I can get reimbursed for the tickets.”

“Sis, don’t _not_ go because of me,” he complained. “Give my ticket to someone else you know.”

“I was planning on going with _you_ , though. Who else is going to sit through the hour-long Sun Riders panel with me?” She ruffled his hair, smiling, because that had been his idea, and the thing he had been most looking forward to on that day. “You’re sweet to think of it. It’s okay, I’ll figure out what I want to do some other time.”

Chiro’s mouth twisted but he nodded, pushing the big box away from him. A small _thunk_ sounded from across the table as the shoebox fell off the other side of it, though neither sibling noticed.

“I’m going to check the turkey,” Amber said, heading back toward the kitchen. Chiro trooped excitedly after her at the promise of dinner.

Something incredible happened in the next few moments that neither one of them ever would have expected.

Amber opened the topmost cabinet above the stove and pulled out a serving dish, setting it on the countertop. She moved the stepstool to the side and bent over to pull the turkey out of the oven.

Chiro watched in slow motion as a huge metal saucepan fell out of the still-open top cabinet and dropped down toward his sister’s head. A silent scream ripped out of his throat as he leaped toward her, arms outstretched. In a blast of green light, a burst of power enveloped his heart and spread throughout his whole body in an instant.

_KATUNK!_

_CRAAAASSSSHHH!!!_

Amber looked up from the oven and saw her saucepan cracked against the glass window. She looked up and saw the cabinet was still open. _Oh, stars have mercy, that was my fault. I didn’t close the cabinet. That almost hit me in the head, didn’t it?_ A rush of panic-laced anxiety surged through her and she gripped her pan tight. _It’s okay. It’s okay. Chiro… wait, Chiro?_

She looked up at her brother. He was breathing hard like he’d just run in from somewhere, and his whole body crackled with green and yellow electricity. She stood up and plunked the pan down on the stove, closing the oven door gingerly. “Holy Shuggazoom, Chiro, are you… are you okay?” She blinked and looked again, because he was wearing something very different than the last time she’d seen him a few moments ago. “And… what on Shuggazoom are you _wearing_?”

Chiro looked down at himself as the energy crackles faded away. Black boots. White pants. White shirt. He looked at his hands. Orange gloves. He tugged at his collar. Scarf, too.

“What’s this? Is this your… your superpower thing? From the Power Primate?”

Chiro looked at his reflection in the window glass. His hair was swooped in the opposite direction from usual, and he had orange paint running down his cheeks almost like tear tracks. “Antauri told me that this might happen. Hyper Form.” He shifted foot to foot as he tried to explain about this new strange form. “Antauri and I talked about my Power Primate ability, and he said that he was pretty sure I was going to gain a Hyper Form, an active superhero form that I could use when trouble showed up. He said that he didn’t know how or when it would activate for the first time, only that it would show itself ‘in due time, when the time is right and you’re ready.’” He took a deep breath and looked up at his sister. “So, yeah, this is… this is the first time that it’s happened to me. That pot almost dropped on your head and I got so scared and it all happened so fast after that…”

Amber scratched her head and looked over at the window. The etched glass was fairly thick but the pot had nonetheless put a star and some spiderweb cracks in it. “Hoo boy. Well, hopefully I can get that fixed soon.”

Chiro caught sight of the cracked glass and winced. “I’m so sorry…”

“Chiro, it’s not your fault. You saved me. At least from a headache if not a concussion.” She smiled and kissed him on the white paint covering his forehead. “You know what? I’m proud of you.” She pulled back and looked him up and down. “Can you change back? Do you know how?”

“I think so.” He tapped the top button, one of two big black buttons on his white shirt, and in a flash of green light he was back into his red cardigan and jeans.

Amber nodded, filing that away into the back of her head. _Hyper Form_. “All right, then. Now you’ll have something cool to show Antauri tomorrow morning.”

“He’s gonna be so surprised.” Chiro grinned up at her excitedly.

Amber walked over to the window and picked up the heavy saucepan. She inhaled a little breath between her teeth and sighed, running the tips of her fingers over the cracks in the pane. It didn’t look especially bad. It would probably be fine, she could call someone tomorrow morning to come fix it.

 _Shkt._ The sound of the glass sealing itself together was so quiet that she didn’t hear it as she went back to the meal. “Okay. Let’s get all the rest of this sorted out.”

Chiro forked the slices of turkey out of the pan and onto the platter, taking it over to the dining room table as his sister got the vegetables out of the microwave. He put the platter down on a coaster and elbowed the gift boxes out of the way. They were surprisingly light.

His brow furrowed and he glanced inside the big one.

His costume was gone.

“Amber?” he called across the room.

“What?” she yelled back.

“Where’s… where’s my Super Quasar costume?”

“In the box where you left it, buddy.”

Chiro picked up the box and shook it upside down. Only the strips of shredded wrapping paper fluttered out onto the table. “No, it’s not.”

Amber stepped over to his side with the bowl of vegetables in her hand. “What do you mean, it’s not?”

“It’s not, look.” He shoved the empty box in her face and looked at her imploringly.

That was very, very weird.

Amber’s own eyebrows furrowed, making a worried ‘v.’ “Did… did you put it away? Pack it somewhere so you could take it with you?”

“No, I was going to do that later.” Chiro shook his head. “I didn’t touch it again after I opened it.”

Amber set the hot bowl on a coaster and closed one eye, thinking. “Hmm. Chiro, can you change back into superhero form?”

“Hyper Form?”

“Yeah, that thing.”

“I… think so.”

He touched the yellow comm device that was attached to his cardigan. From the soles of his feet to the top of his head, a line of green energy rose, changing his clothes and making him glow with its power. In an instant, he stood before his sister, sparking with power and energy.

Amber put her chin in her hand and waited for the energy crackles to die down before she spoke. “I think… I think you’re wearing it.”

Chiro looked down at himself and his eyebrows shot up in surprise.

“It must be a weird magic thing. The elements of your costume got absorbed into your superhero form.”

“Like… like what happened to Aurora Six in episode 20, _Fashion Disaster on Dariss!_ ”

Amber snapped her fingers. In that episode Aurora Six had had a magical malfunction with her Sun Riders outfit. It absorbed the colors and patterns of any fabric she got near, with disastrous and comical results. Of course, this was a little more serious, and probably permanent, but it was sort of similar. “Yes, that’s what I was thinking of.”

Chiro struck a couple of action poses, culminating with the iconic Sun Riders salute.

Amber laughed a little at that. “It actually isn’t half bad. I think you look cool.”

He looked at her, perking up at her praise. He’d been worried that she’d think he looked weird. “Really?”

“Chiro, you are the coolest person I know. Honest.”

He gave her a fist bump and grinned at her excitedly.

She smiled at him and motioned toward the table. “I think now that that’s all sorted out, we should eat this before it gets horribly cold.”

Chiro morphed back into his regular clothes with a touch of a button. “Sounds good to me!”

Dinner was a normal affair. An absurdly normal affair that underlined just how different Amber’s dinners would be from then on.

They cleaned up, washed the dishes, and snuggled together on the couch to watch a movie.

…And then they also watched the Sun Riders four-part season-two-finale-season-three-opener because it was one of Chiro’s favorite story arcs. She smiled against his hair as he sleepily exclaimed “Light above darkness, forever!” for the twentieth time.

The closing credits rolled and he yawned widely. His sister rubbed his back and he looked up at her. “Ready for bed?”

“I don’t want to go to bed,” he protested half-heartedly, repeating his often-used dispute.

“You have a big day tomorrow,” she said, repeating her often-used reply.

It was a little comforting for the both of them to fall into the same cliché rut they’d been in forever. Chiro would complain, then Amber would gently nudge, then Chiro would complain again, but he would get up and get ready for bed anyway. It was familiar, and it felt good. But knowing that tomorrow would indeed be a very big day for a new and scary reason… it did weigh on both of them.

“I like it here,” he said at last, burying his head back under the blanket they were sharing.

She rolled her eyes and shuffled through it until she found his hair, and then unceremoniously yanked the covers off both of them. A chill rolled over her skin, raising goosebumps. Chiro reacted a lot more dramatically. “Hey! Amber! Give that back!”

She threw it over the back of the couch. “No. Go to bed. We’ll talk tomorrow, okay?”

“Sis…” he whined, plunking himself back onto her stomach and wrapping his arms around her like he was trying to leech off her body heat.

Amber let out a hard wheeze. “Chiro, you’re not that light anymore. Get off. Get off and get up and go get ready.” He pulled out his kitten eyes, his best, shiniest, most pleading eyes, and normally she could never deny them. She sighed and groaned. “Do you really want to try and explain to the Monkeys why you’re really tired tomorrow?”

“No…”

“Then go get ready, and come find me when you want me to say goodnight, okay?”

Chiro sighed and sat up. “Okay.” He plodded up the stairs and she heard his bedroom door close. She sighed and smiled tiredly and got up and made her way up the stairs behind him to get ready for bed herself.

* * * * * * *

Surprisingly, both of them slept well. Amber woke up the next morning to the smell of eggs and spices, and tumbled out of bed, got on some clothes, and padded downstairs to find Chiro intently watching a frying pan.

“Wow,” she said, catching his attention. Chiro almost never cooked breakfast. He either made something easy for himself, like oatmeal or cereal, and if they had hot breakfast Amber almost always cooked it. This was incredibly unusual, but very exciting.

“Surprise,” Chiro said, waving his spatula. “I was gonna wake you up but I wanted to surprise you with something nice.”

“This _is_ so nice,” Amber replied, rubbing his hair. “Since when do you know how to cook eggs?”

He elbowed her in the ribs. “Since, uh, you taught me how?”

She laughed, from the sharp elbow in her rib but also from his deadpan expression. “Well, at least you’ll have something to eat over there.” She straightened up and put her chin in her hand. “I wonder if any of the Monkeys know how to cook…? They do eat, right? Since they’re cyborgs and not like, full robots?”

“Yeah, they eat.” Chiro stuck his tongue out of the corner of his mouth and firmly flipped the egg over and it landed perfectly. “Yes! Um, yeah, actually I think they all know how, but they might all have something they prefer to cook? I’m not really sure. When I find out I’ll let you know.”

“As long as you get enough to eat, that’s important,” she reminded him. “And your vitamins.”

“Yeah, I know.” Chiro slid the egg out of the pan onto a plate. “Here you go, sis.”

They ate their eggs and cereal in silence, the impending goodbyes weighing on them more and more heavily. Amber cleaned up while Chiro ran around throwing all his last-minute things into his backpack. At quarter to ten he planted himself in front of the front door, and it was time.

He dropped his copy of his house keys into his sister’s hand. “I guess I won’t need these, then.”

Amber hesitated for a second and then took them. “Okay. I’ll keep them. But if you ever need them, let me know, and I’ll find a way to get them to you.”

“Okay.”

“Oh…” She gave in and wrapped him up in as big a hug as she could. “Chiro, I’m gonna miss you so much…” Every part of her, from her furrowed brow to her trembling lip, to her crushing embrace, to the tears she was fighting back, told her brother that she was telling the truth.

He hugged her back, burying his face in her shoulder. She was his sister. She’d always been there for him, no matter the squalls, and she always wanted to do the right thing for him. And now the right thing was leading them apart, like two paths diverging, and he had to take the one less traveled. A path for a hero.

They stood like that for a few minutes, while Amber tried to memorize everything about this moment, from the texture of his cardigan to the weight of his head on her shoulder. This was so hard.

Chiro let go of his sister, happy with the hug, and was surprised to find that she still clung to him. “Uh… sis?”

“I need a second,” she mumbled against his head.

He sighed. “I’m going to call you every night.”

“I know.”

“It’s going to be okay, the Monkeys are gonna be there with me.”

“I know.”

“Amber, you’re crushing me.”

“I know.”

Chiro sighed, arms dangling limply from his sister’s crushing grip. “Amber, you’re being ridiculous.”

“Believe it or not, I know that too.”

Chiro sighed again as she released her hold. “Sis, it’s going to be fine. I promise.”

She ran her thumb over his cheek. “I’m just going to miss you a lot, that’s all.”

“Me too.”

He looked up at her, eyes bright and true, and she could feel tears beginning in her own. “Be safe. Be brave. Be strong. I don’t even know what else to tell you. Geez, Chiro.”

“Sis, you’re making this _so_ much harder than it has to be.”

“And yet you’re still here, letting me cry all over you.”

He pulled his cardigan sleeve up over his hand and wiped away the tears rolling down her cheeks. “Holy Shuggazoom. Stop it. I’m going to be fine. I won’t be alone, I have the team. The Monkey Team is going to be with me all the time, they’re going to train me, and I’m going to learn so many cool new things, right?”

“R-right.” She swallowed and rubbed her sleeve across her face. “I’m glad that you have the opportunity to… to learn to be a hero. I really am.”

“I’m not leaving you, sis, you know that,” he said softly. “You’ve got me here,” he pointed to her forehead, and she felt their bond crackle, “and you’ve got me here.” He pointed to her chest. “Don’t worry. Please don’t worry. I will call you. It’s going to be okay.”

Amber took a deep breath and let it out in a wobbly sigh. “I love you so much, Chiro.”

“I love you, too.”

He hugged her one last time and let her go with a tentative sigh of his own. He adjusted his backpack straps gingerly and hopped down the porch steps. He waved to her at the end of the sidewalk, and she waved back. She watched him disappear over the curve of the street toward the Industrial District, where the Super Robot had been placed by the Monkey Team. She bit her lip. There was a very odd, tingly feeling in her soul that whatever was about to begin, it wouldn’t end for a very long time, and perhaps, even that this wasn’t the end of her part in it. She sighed and shook the feeling away, closing the door with a firm _click_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End flashback! And so this brings us back to the beginning of the series, where Chiro is off on his big destiny to learn to be a hero. Amber feels as though she's lost her brother for good, and she's never going to see him again... but of course her separation from her brother isn't permanent, as we read in Chapters 1 & 2 already. And we also get a couple of hints to both past and future events! 
> 
> The next chapter is going to be S1 E2, _Depths of Fear!_
> 
> If you liked this story so far, you're interested in where it's going, or you noticed a detail that you want to tell me you noticed, please feel free to leave a comment here or, even better, drop me an ask on my tumblr [ sweetcircuits!](https://sweetcircuits.tumblr.com)


	4. in which depths are dived into and fears are faced

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh, I'm so sorry it's been so long for an update! I had a few chapters ready but I ended up posting them all already, and I was working on the next few chapters but they ended up taking longer than I wanted... Anyway, here's chapter 4! Now we're out of the flashback and back to the present day, about two or three weeks after chapter 2 happens. You get your very first flashback with Chiro and Amber's parents in this AU, one of many to come! And Amber gets to go on her very first mission with the Hyperforce, and Chiro gets to face his fears... 
> 
> This chapter is based on S1E2, _Depths of Fear!_

Chiro had always been afraid of water.

All right, that wasn’t really true. There had been an incident the summer he was five.

Ray and Haruka, their parents, had taken the two of them to the beach—the one to the northeast of the city proper. It was the one with the softest sand and the best pools for looking for shells (and the least monsters, Ray said to his wife when they thought their daughter wasn’t listening.)

Ray grinned as he dug the sand pails out of their big bags. “Who wants to make a sandcastle?”

“ME!” Amber shouted, jumping up and down and waving her arm. “I want to!”

Ray let her grab her blue and purple buckets and her shovel and led her down closer to the water where the sand was smoother. “Okay.” He knelt down and grinned at his daughter. “Whoever makes the tallest castle wins.”

“I’m gonna win,” Amber said, poking him in the arm with her shovel. “I’m gonna make the best sandcastle ever.”

“Do you need a timekeeper, dear?” Haruka shouted from higher up on the sand where she was trying to set out a blanket to sit on.

“Fifteen minutes? Sound fair to you?” Ray said, raising one eyebrow at his daughter.

Amber gave him a fierce little nod.

“Fifteen minutes, love,” he shouted back.

Haruka finally wrestled the blanket down to the sand and plopped a small rock on the nearest corner to keep it from blowing around. Chiro was running around being absolutely in the way of everything and having the time of his life. His mother finally snagged him and plopped him down in her lap as she fished in her bag for her watch. “Ready? Set…” she began, setting her watch for the allotted time.

“GO!” Chiro shouted, clapping his hands excitedly.

Father and daughter raced for sand and water, piling the wet sand into two big mounds and shaping it into turrets and walls and carving out windows. Amber whined and worked faster as her walls kept collapsing in on themselves. “Not fair!”

“Do you want help, Amber?” her dad said, peeking around the corner of his own castle.

“NO!” she said. “No, I wanna do it myself. It’s not really a contest if you help me, Dad!”

“That’s true. Maybe try more water in your sand mix, though?”

“DAD! No helping!”

“Okay, fine, sweetheart, your loss.” He grinned at her and Amber stuck out her tongue at him.

She grumbled but added more water in with her sand, until it was a sloppy, sticky mix. She reinforced her turrets and her walls and then remembered with a jolt that Dad had said ‘tallest wins.’ Hers was definitely more castle-y looking but her dad’s was definitely taller!

“Three minutes!” Haruka called.

_Ahhhh!_

Those three minutes passed in a blink of an eye and her mother called “TIME!” before she knew it. She stood back and pursed her lips at her creation. Not too bad. Definitely the best she’d made yet. It even had a little moat around it!

“And now, for our distinguished judges,” Ray announced, mock bowing to his wife who strolled down to the water’s edge with his son in tow.

Haruka tapped her finger to her cheek and adjusted her sunglasses. “Hmm. I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten the criteria,” she joked. “I must have left my judging sheets at home.”

“Tallest wins,” Amber said grudgingly, because by that criteria she’d definitely lost. Her dad’s ‘castle’ towered at least six inches over hers. But it didn’t even look like a castle! It had walls, yeah, but his turrets weren’t even pointed! And only two windows in the front and an outline for a door. It was basically a big block of wet sand. It was so ugly. Amber put her little hands on her hips and awaited her mother’s judgement.

“Well,” Haruka said after a moment, “it does seem as though your father has indeed made his castle tallest…”

“He’s an engineer!” Amber said, stomping her foot. “Course he knows how to build stuff!”

“Sweetie, sand and metal are hardly the same thing,” Haruka said. “You can’t compare them.”

Amber pouted at her.

Haruka got a little glint in her eye, the way she did when she was about to do something very silly. She reached behind her and pretended to pull out a phone, setting her hand against her ear and talking animatedly into it. “Oh, hello. You say there was a mistake? There’s actually two awards available? How wonderful! I will let the contestants know at once! Thank you. Goodbye.” She put the imaginary phone away and clapped her hands together. “Good news, Amber! The judging committee has decided that there is a second award available! Your father has indeed won for the tallest castle but you, darling, have won the one for most beautiful castle!”

Amber laughed. “Momma!”

“It’s true, honey, it looks so pretty.” She knelt down next to her daughter. “Look, it has little stones for decoration and a moat and a little stick for a flag! It’s the most castle-y sandcastle I’ve ever seen.”

“Your mother’s right, Amber,” Ray said. “I’d say it’s the prettiest castle you’ve ever made.”

Amber giggled, their praise making her heart warm and all the scrapes on her hands worth it.

A splashing sound attracted their attention, and all three heads shot over to see their littlest family member sitting on the edge of the water and splashing his feet in the tide. Haruka smiled, the corner of her mouth turning up. She had been keeping an eye on her son out of the corner of her eye. And right now he seemed just a little bit bored, since he couldn’t do the castles with his sister. “I think we should go in the water for a little bit, yes?”

“Yeah!” Amber shouted.

The four of them linked hands and plowed into the waves, always careful to keep the water shallow enough for Chiro. They tossed their beach ball around for a little bit. Ray had amazing aim and accuracy, and Haruka always threw it just a little out of his reach to make him scramble for it. They all laughed and splashed, sputtered and laughed some more, breathless with excitement and exertion. Chiro whined and his dad scooped him up, letting him hit the ball over to his sister more easily.

“Oh, it’s a team-up, is it?” Haruka said, grabbing the ball and holding it under her arms. “Well, I think it should be fair.” She looked over at her daughter and grinned. “Wanna help me against the boys?”

In Amber’s opinion, Chiro didn’t really count as a team member since he was so little. He had a hard time throwing the ball far with his short arms and didn’t always run to catch it when it was going his way. But her dad, with his crack shot aim, was worth at least two teammates by himself, so technically it evened out. “Okay.” She gave her mother a high five. “Let’s go!”

Nobody ended up winning that match; they all just mutually gave up, worn out and ready to eat something. Haruka got out their snacks and sandwiches and drinks and they all ate. Chiro ate his sandwich and a freezy-pop and yawned, settling his head down on one of the bags for a little nap.

“I’ll watch him, if you want to go do something,” Haruka told her husband.

“I don’t want you to do nothing, love, it’s not fair for you to come and just sit and read,” he replied.

“Dad, I wanna go look for seashells,” Amber said, tugging on his arm. “Please?”

“Of course Dad’ll take you to go look for shells, sweetie,” her mother said, smiling excitedly at her.

“Haruka…” he objected.

“It’s all right,” she insisted. “I’ll watch our boy. Go find some pretty shells and when he wakes up again we’ll go do something together.” She leaned over and peeked into one of the bags, another hint of a smile teasing at her lips. “Goodness knows we brought enough toys with us.”

Ray relented and let himself be dragged off the blanket by his daughter. “All right, Amber, let’s go find you something pretty to take home!”

“Thank you, Dad!”

He put his hand on her head. “Of course, sweetheart.”

They walked up and down the shallow pools further down the beach, Ray examining the water carefully while Amber ran a little further down to look at a big flat black rock. “Look, Dad!” she called back to him, waving a narrow light blue-and-yellow shell in her hand.

“Nice!” he called back. “Good find!”

The two of them doggedly searched the shoreline and after a short while Amber had collected two more small, flat shells, one orange and white and one shiny off-white all the way through. She took them excitedly back to her mother and dropped them on the blanket. “Look, Momma! Look how shiny!”

“You sure do like the shiny stuff, don’t you?” Haruka laughed, picking up the cream-colored shell. “These are really pretty. Good work!”

Amber giggled and plopped herself down on the blanket next to her brother. “They’re going on my desk so I can see them every day!”

Chiro rolled over, scrunched up his face, cracked his eyes open. “Amber?” he whined.

“Look what I got!” Amber said, waving the orange shell over his face.

His eyes went wide, all attention arrested by that orange shell. He sat up and took it from her. “Wow!” His fingers traced over the little grooves in the surface of the shell.

“Anybody want to go back and swim a little bit?” Ray said, taking the shell from his son and putting all three of them away.

“Swim!” Chiro yelled.

Nobody could argue with that!

They went back out into the water once more and proceeded to have a fantastic time swimming and splashing in the cold water, with the warm sun on their faces.

And then it happened. Chiro’s little legs took him out just a little too far.

He got caught in a rip current.

The water carried him out into deeper and deeper water while his family all screamed. Ray shouted to him, over the sound of the water, “Just float, just float, buddy, you’ll be okay!” He was after him in an instant, diving after his son. The water wasn’t as fast as he’d thought, which made it easier for him to swim to catch up, but still far too fast for a child. Haruka ran out into the water, waves splashing around her thighs, as she screamed after both of her boys.

Amber stood on the shore, eyes wide, feet rooted to the wet sand. “Chiro, come back!”

After the longest three and a half minutes of their lives, the waves brought Ray and Chiro back to shore and he gave him to his wife. The little boy was crying and coughing up water as he clung to her. “Mama…?” he coughed. “…Amber?” His mother held him close and patted him gently, soothing him down from his fright.

Amber slid her hand over her brother’s arm as he shook and noticed that his trunks were ripped. “Momma, Momma, look.” She stuck her fingers in the rip and pulled it out so her mother would see. “Momma, they got a big tear in them.”

“I see, honey,” her mother said. “Don’t pull, you’ll make the rip bigger.”

Amber obediently dropped the fabric and instead wrapped her arms around her brother. “It’s okay, Chiro, you’re okay. Dad got you. You’re okay.”

Chiro cried and coughed for a while and Haruka just sat on their blanket and held him close.

“I’m sorry, darling, I should have kept a better eye on him,” Ray said, running his hand over the soaked dark curls that were plastered to his head.

“Yeah, you should have,” Haruka muttered over her son’s head, glaring at him, her bright green eyes flashing with anger. “You know he’s curious. He always wants to look at everything.”

“I didn’t see the current,” Ray said, kneeling down on the blanket next to his wife. Amber handed him his beach towel and he draped it over his head. “I’m sorry, love. And I’m sorry, Chiro. I’m so sorry, buddy, it was all my fault.”

Haruka sighed and shared a tired glance with her husband. “All right.” She cuddled her son in her lap and ran her fingers through his short wet locks. He sniffled and coughed again and she ran his hand over his back. “I think we’d better go home. We’ve all had enough fun for the day, I think.”

Ray nodded.

They packed up and went home and Chiro didn’t leave his mother’s side for the rest of the day. After that they never went back; it wasn’t worth it.

They never really talked about it as a family… their father didn’t feel it was worth reminding Chiro of what had happened. He wasn’t sure if he would remember, since he was so little, but it wasn’t worth bringing up. But it was something unspoken, something universally acknowledged, to avoid water. It was just one of those things you didn’t bring up.

So when Chiro called Amber and asked her to go swimming with him… she got just a little bit worried.

* * * * * * *

It was insanely hot.

Shuggazoom only had one sun; there was absolutely no good reason that it was a hundred and five degrees outside.

However, it _was_ August; that might have something to do with it.

Well, it wouldn’t be Shuggazoom if something unexpected and insane happened, with no warning or ability to prepare. Skeleton King had been surprisingly light on the big monsters so far this month, but this ridiculous heat wave was more than enough to occupy everyone’s attention.

There was a constant stream of customers coming in and out of the candy store, and Amber was selling icy lollies faster than Mrs. Hanna could make them. And then there were those customers who were just there for the air conditioning, which Amber could understand and respect—but it made moving around the store just a little more challenging. She gave up trying to keep the floor mopped and swept and stuck herself behind the register and stayed there. That was just as well, with how busy it was.

She was so busy that she didn’t hear Chiro’s voice coming from her necklace either of the first two times he called.

“Chiro to Amber, come in, Amber!”

She jumped. “Chiro?”

“Amber, you all right?”

“I’m not used to having a comm on me,” she said, embarrassed. “I keep forgetting to pay attention for a voice coming out of my necklace.”

“I’m sorry, sis. Are you busy?”

Amber bent over the counter and looked down the queue. No waiting customers. “Not right this second. Gimme a minute, Chiro. I’ll call you back.”

“’Kay.”

Amber pressed the intercom next to the register. “Mrs. H to register, please.”

Within a few moments, Mrs. H came bustling out of the kitchen. “All right, I’ve put another dozen ice lollies in the freezer, they should be ready in fifteen minutes.”

Amber tucked her hair behind her ear. “That’s just as well. BT won’t stop asking me when you’re going to put more out.”

“Oh, I’ll go talk to him,” Mrs. H offered, a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

“Do you think you could also watch the register? For five minutes? Chiro’s been calling me and I want to see what’s up.”

“Of course I could, dear.” She looked around the sparsely populated front of the store. “It looks manageable. Five minutes, then.”

“Thank you!”

Amber pushed through the employee door and tapped the monkey on her necklace. “Amber to Chiro, please respond.”

“Chiro here. Busy day?”

Amber grabbed a page of newspaper out of the recycling bin and started to fan herself with it. The air conditioning was on 72 degrees and she still felt her skin was trying to melt off. “Really busy. I swear, Mrs. H’s icy lollies haven’t been this popular all summer. Not to mention we have working AC so we have people just coming in for that.” She sighed and folded the newspaper in half and kept fanning herself. “Anyway, what’s up?”

“Well, since it’s so hot, Nova had the idea to go swimming in the river, and everyone decided that was a great idea. And I wanted to ask… if you wanted to come along?”

“I’m sorry, buddy, but I can’t, not right now.”

“Aww, what do you mean, you can’t?”

“Exactly that. I’m at work right now.”

“Oh. Right.”

“My shift isn’t over for another hour-ish, and I’m not going to make the Monkeys wait for me.” She dropped her paper fan on the couch and untied her apron. Her skirt was helping keep her cool a little but the apron was just sticking to her all over and it was awful. “Wait, where are you going again?”

“The Monkeys want to go swimming in the river,” Chiro said in a tiny voice.

Amber sat up bolt straight. “You’re… but Chiro? Swimming?”

“No, no, no, the Monkeys are going swimming, not me.”

Screams echoed through Amber’s memory, gushing like a dark, unforgiving tide. “Are you… are you sure? You don’t… you don’t like the water. Do the Monkeys know… about that?”

“They do… I mentioned it recently…”

“Then why… why go?”

Chiro sighed. “I want to go have fun with the Monkey Team, even if I’m the only one not swimming. It’ll be more fun to watch them have fun than doing training.”

“Chiro…” Amber pressed her lips together.

“And honestly, Amber, I’d feel better if you were here.”

“Oh, Chiro, I can’t, I’m so sorry… are you going to be okay?”

“Well, I’m not going near the water if I can help it. I’m more of a long-distance participant.”

“If you say so. Try to have fun, and I’ll see you later, okay?”

There was a long inhale and a long sigh and Amber could just feel how scared he was. “Okay. See you soon.”

“I love you.”

“Love you too. Chiro out.”

The necklace blipped and the monkey’s eyes dulled to dark green as the communication ended. Amber took a deep breath and sighed herself. The river out in the Cliffs wasn’t deep; not nearly as deep as the Seas were. He wasn’t really in any danger—but his fear would inevitably paralyze him.

_He’ll be okay. They’re going out for a nice swim on a hot day, and the Monkeys are there with him. What could happen?_

* * * * * * *

~ _An hour and a half later~_

Amber turned up the electric fan as high as it would go and groaned into the fan blades. It made a fun tinny sound that she’d always liked as a kid. She grinned and continued to make sounds into the fan and the fan spit them back out with an almost robotic tone.

After a little while, she got tired of that and set the fan down on the coffee table, flopping down on the couch. She’d changed out of her work skirt into a pair of short overalls and a t-shirt and it was almost cool enough to not want to die. Basking in the cool air flow, she pulled out the second volume of her _Connected Hearts_ manga and began to contentedly read it.

It was so quiet that when Chiro’s voice came out of her necklace again, she almost jumped clear out of her skin.

“AAHHH! Chiro!”

“Sorry,” the boy apologized. “Geez, you’re jumpy today.”

Amber rubbed her forehead and frustratedly stared at the ceiling. “I told you, I’m not used to this yet. And I was reading, nice and quiet, and you scared me.”

“I’m sorry, Amber, I didn’t mean to.”

“I know, I know.” She sighed and put a piece of paper in between the pages she’d been reading. “What happened?”

“You didn’t take the Transit Car back from work today, did you?”

“No, I never take the Transit Tunnel. I always walk, you know that.”

There was a relieved sigh on the other end of the line. “Okay, good, because I knew it was the same time you were getting out of work and I didn’t see you and I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“Oh, right. I did see that on the news.” She sat up and put her feet on the coffee table. “There was a big flood in the Transit Tunnels and the Hyperforce saved the people that were trapped in the Transit Car. Good job with that, I’m proud of you. Especially because of, you know, the flooding.”

“Yeah, it was… something. Anyway, I wanted to ask you something. We’re about to go out on a mission… do you want to come with us?”

Amber raised her eyebrows. “Wait, do you need me? You guys can handle it, right?”

“Well…” Chiro began hesitantly.

A suspicious feeling nibbled at her mind. “Wait. Where’s the mission?”

“Well, while we were at the river, there were some earthquakes, and you saw on the news there was flooding, right? City Center and parts of the Shopping District are still flooded. Shuggazoom might be sinking, so we have to check out the subterranean support system.”

“But that means going—!”

“Underwater. Yeah.”

Amber sighed and raked her hand through her hair. This was hugely terrifying for him, probably, and of course he’d feel better if she came along, even if it was just to be there and not actually work on the mission. Well, she could just go and observe and see how the Monkeys worked, that would be interesting. And of course she’d be there for her brother if he wanted her there. “Did you ask anyone if it was okay to take me along, or are you just hoping they’ll be okay with it?”

“I asked Antauri, he said it was fine.”

“Okay. I’ll come.”

“Great! We’ll pick you up in five minutes.”

“Pick me up?”

“Yup. See you then!” The comm turned off, signaling the end of transmission.

Amber sighed, dragged herself off of the comfy couch and up the stairs to get some things together. She was excited and nervous, although she couldn’t speak for the nervousness. It wasn’t like she was the one that was going to be doing the mission; she was there pretty much to be moral support for Chiro. She stuffed her bathing suit into her bag. It was her first mission, her first time officially going anywhere with the Monkey Team. It was exciting, and she felt happy to be included.

She was halfway back down the stairs, her bag slung over her shoulder, when the house started to vibrate. She got down to the front door, shoved her sandals on, and opened the door. The Torso Tank was driving down her street. She blinked hard, surprised, and locked her front door without looking at it.

When Chiro was driving his part of the Super Robot when it was in Machinder Mode, that was one thing—because she could suspend her disbelief on account of it actually being a super robot. But the Torso Tank was something else entirely. There was a tank as big as her house being driven down her street, and it was being driven by her thirteen-year old brother who was still three years off from getting a normal person driver’s license.

Her life was ridiculous.

Her necklace began to beep. “Amber, you there? Come in.”

Amber closed her dropped jaw with a click. “Yeah, I’m here. What do you want me to do?”

“Okay, it’s kinda hard to get in the Torso Tank without already being in here when it’s switched out of Machinder Mode, but its okay. You’re close?”

“Uh huh.” Amber had caught up with the Torso Tank and was currently standing by it and being astounded by how tall it was. The wheels were taller than her. Holy Shuggazoom.

“Okay, I’m opening the ladder on the side.” Panels in the side of the Tank shifted, revealing a hand-grab ladder. “Climb up, then climb down the hatch in the top and you should drop down into the cockpit with me.”

Amber took a deep breath, bit her lip, and began to haul herself up the rungs. Luckily, despite being tall, the climb wasn’t hard, and soon she found herself on the roof of the Torso Tank. True to Chiro’s word, there was an unlocked hatch right next to her. Okay, so it was exactly how she’d gotten out of the Torso Tank that other time. She yanked it open and there was another ladder, this one leading down. She started down it, closing the lid after herself, and the space around her began to light up orange. “Chiro?” she called, her voice echoing in the small space.

“Down here,” his voice echoed back. “All the way down at the bottom, not far. It’s the same cockpit you sat in with me during the raining Formless attack.”

“Yeah, okay, makes sense.” Amber’s foot found the floor at last and she stepped down off the ladder. She turned and found her brother sitting in his pilot’s seat, grinning at her proudly.

“You made it!” he said, smiling brightly.

“Yeah. Thank you.” She sat down in the seat behind Chiro’s and fastened the restraints over her lap.

“All fastened in, sis?” he asked, turning around.

Amber nodded.

“All right then, team, let’s move out!”

The Monkey Team followed Chiro as he drove through the city to one of Shuggazoom’s many long bridges, but instead of going across it, he drove right into the water. They went deeper and deeper into the water, following Gibson’s marked route on the radar map.

Amber felt a shiver of apprehension trickle through her bond. “Um… how deep do we have to go?” Chiro asked with a gulp.

“Conservative estimate? Twenty thousand megafantoms,” Gibson replied immediately.

“Oooo, sounds really deep,” Otto commented. “Just think if we got stuck down here. I wonder if the fish would eat us.”

 _Otto, you’re really, really, really not helping,_ Amber thought with a groan.

Chiro’s mouth was pressed into a hard, worried line and she could tell that the depths were scaring him. She reached forward and squeezed his shoulder. “It’s going to be all right. I promise.” He looked back at her gratefully.

“Underground lake, directly ahead,” Antauri said. The team emerged from the tunnel into a large open space. Each of the Monkeys exclaimed in wonder at the sight of the enormous space and the tall, thin columns filling it.

“Holy Shuggazoom,” Amber croaked in turn.

“And to think, the entire city is supported by these pillars,” Gibson noted.

Indeed, the huge underwater cavern was filled with innumerable pillars, the city’s support system. Amber leaned forward to look out Chiro’s main viewscreen. “I’ve never been down here before… but are the columns _supposed_ to have holes in them?”

“Looks like the quake hit this one pretty hard,” Otto noted, motioning toward a particularly holey pillar.

“It appears that we may have a bigger problem,” Antauri observed.

“I would speculate those holes are not from any earthquake,” Gibson put in nervously.

“They almost look like…” Otto began.

Chiro looked up out his skylight and out his front viewscreen, his heart pounding against his ribs. Those holes were jagged and sharp around the edges, not natural in any way. He shared a horrified look with his sister as they came to the same conclusion at the same time. “Teeth! Teeth marks!”

“Watch out!” Sparx yelled as some of the pillars came crashing down.

Chiro yanked at the control wheel, avoiding falling rocks and pieces of pillars. “The city’s coming down!” There was only one way they were going to come out of this uncrushed. “Machinder Mode, team, go!”

The Monkeys worked fast, reverting their ships back into their original forms. The Brain Scrambler attached to the top of the Torso Tank, followed by the two Fist Rockets attaching to the arms, and finally the Foot Crusher Cruisers to the legs. The newly reassembled Super Robot maneuvered under the top of the cavern. It put its arms up and braced its legs, holding the city from coming down. Amber didn’t even dare to breath as more pillars fell around them.

“The Robot is holding, come on down, Chiro,” Gibson told him.

“And you as well, Amber, come down to the main floor. Chiro can show you how to reach it from the Torso Tank’s cockpit,” Antauri said.

The siblings unbuckled their restraints. Chiro stood up, stretched, and hopped over his seat to stand behind his sister’s. He motioned for her to stand up next to him, and tentatively, she did so. An elevator appeared beneath their feet and quickly transporting them back to the main room. As they exited the tube, they noticed that the Monkeys were already gathered.

“The city is stabilized, the Robot is holding,” Gibson repeated as he twisted a dial on the little console in his seat. “I stand corrected. It obviously wasn’t an earthquake that caused the city to sink.”

Otto nodded, typing into his own little keypad. “It was some kinda big… toothy thing.”

Amber leaned against Chiro’s pod-chair, for lack of anything more helpful to do. “Ah hah. A big toothy thing. Well, I guess you guys have your work cut out for you.” Chiro walked over to Sparx, Nova, and Antauri, trying his best to not look like he was living his nightmare.

Nova whipped out her best moves enthusiastically. “So let’s find it, so I can smash it and pound it and slam it and—”

Antauri crossed his arms. “Nova,” he said with only a hint of a warning tone.

She stopped and grinned sheepishly.

“Team, prep for underwater mode,” the black Monkey requested.

Chiro and Sparx looked equally uneasy. “Of course, uh, somebody has to stay behind, handle the Robot,” Sparx said. “So I guess that would probably be me.”

“Me! I’ll do it! I’ll stay!” Chiro pleaded, pointing at himself urgently.

“Is there any way I can help?” Amber asked, walking over to the little group.

Antauri shook his head. “Unfortunately, we have not yet made a pressure suit in your size. You will have to stay behind.”

Amber’s face fell. “I can’t go out without one?”

Gibson chuckled. “At this depth, your human body would be crushed, flattened like a pancake.”

“That’s a no, then.” Amber tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I guess I brought my bathing suit for nothing.”

“But my sister can’t handle the Robot, she doesn’t know any of the controls. Somebody has to stay behind _with_ her,” Chiro pleaded.

“Very well, Chiro. You can stay, to watch the Robot and your sister,” Antauri agreed.

A few minutes later, Antauri, Gibson, Otto, and Nova were on their way out of the airlock. The red Monkey, however, lingered behind.

“You cool?” Chiro asked.

Sparx turned around. “Always. Just a little water, nothing to be afraid of, right?”

Chiro sighed. “Right.” He gave him a thumbs up. “Good luck, Sparx.”

The red Monkey put on his respirator and the airlock closed to lead him outside. Silence fell in the room except for the beeping of the main console.

Amber broke the silence after a moment. “Sparx doesn’t like deep water either?”

Chiro shook his head. “Yeah, when we were out swimming before, he didn’t want to dive in like Otto and Nova and Gibson did. The two of us kinda just… stood up on the cliff and watched. He did use his tail fan to keep me cool, so that was nice of him.”

“You’re right, that was nice of him,” Amber said. Sparx. She wondered for a brief moment if Sparx’s dislike of water was an innate monkey dislike or if it was just a personal preference. Well, no matter the case, he’d let Chiro stay to make him feel better and gone out himself, even though he was just as uncomfortable in the water as her brother. That was amazingly sweet of him, and it made her heart very warm to have evidence of how much the Monkeys, and Sparx in particular, really cared about Chiro. She’d known they did, of course, Chiro told her as much, but it made her very happy to see it for herself. “I hope he’s gonna be okay out there.”

Chiro smiled. “He’s good. He said he was cool with it, and I believe him.”

There was another long minute of tangible silence before Amber once again broke it, this time with a change of subject. “We’ve got some kind of role reversal going on here. I suddenly feel like you’re babysitting me.”

Chiro grinned, stood up, and pulled her by the arm over to the main console. “All right, then. Big Brother Chiro has to get Baby Amber to help him make sure the Monkeys don’t die out there.”

Amber ruffled his hair. “You’re _hilarious_.” She looked up at the huge monitor. Each Monkey and their vitals were displayed on it, along with a map of the surrounding cavern. Each Monkey was represented by a little digital icon of their face, almost like a mini-map in a video game.

A group of little red triangles appeared on the screen, headed toward the Monkey Team. “I’ve got it on radar. You’re on course to intercept,” Chiro told them.

“Ah!” Sparx’s voice came shouting through the comm system. “Get away! Oh no! No!” With a spine-chilling _bddmm_ , his little icon blipped out.

Chiro reacted immediately. “Monkey Team, I’ve lost Sparx!”

Amber touched his shoulder and looked up at the screen. “Chiro, Chiro, that’s bad, what happened to him? How’d he just disappear like that? Is he okay?”

Without warning, Nova’s and Otto’s icons blinked out, too. Chiro looked up at his sister, brows knitting together with worry. “I… I don’t know, I’m pretty sure they’re still alive… but if the Robot’s sensors can’t pick them up that means that their positioning devices are broken, and _that_ means their rocket packs are busted and they’re in trouble.” He directed his attention to the microphone. “I’ve lost Nova, Otto, too. Somebody report, what’s going on?”

“We’re surrounded. They’re everywhere!” came Antauri’s reply. The little red triangles surrounded his and Gibson’s icons on the screen, like sharp red teeth in a cold, angry mouth.

“Oh, where are these things coming from?” Gibson wondered uneasily.

Amber walked over to the window and uncovered it, looking out into the water for visual confirmation of whatever the Monkeys had accidentally discovered.

“Things?” Chiro asked. “What things?”

Amber screamed and fell back, lurching away from the window and hitting the floor with a hard _thunk_.

Chiro turned. “What? What happened?”

She pointed shakily at the window.

He walked over and put his hands on either side of the glass, squinting out into the dark water. “I don’t see anything…”

 _SKKRRAAAAAH!_ A huge orange claw appeared out of the depths and bared its teeth with a roar.

Chiro jumped and screamed just as his sister had. “Oh yeah, that’s definitely a thing!” He rushed back over to the console and jabbed at a big red button with his index finger. “Defense grid activated!” An electric field surged from the Robot, forming a shock barrier to prevent those claws from getting any closer.

Amber poked her brother and pointed up at the monitor. “Um, Chiro…?”

“Chiro! Chiro, we need your help!” Antauri shouted as his little icon disappeared.

“Okay, Chiro, be calm, you’ll think of something,” Chiro muttered under his breath.

“Chiro, help us!” Gibson choked out. His icon blipped out with a grim finality, leaving the mini-map bare save a swirling vortex of red triangles.

“I can’t help,” Chiro said quietly. “I can’t… swim.” He hung his head sadly.

Amber’s brow furrowed as the map changed to a radar image of Shuggazoom City’s surface. There were many, many more of those same red triangles all over the city. They’d somehow made their way up to the surface where they were no doubt menacing the people of Shuggazoom. That was not ideal by any stretch of the imagination.

Chiro groaned. “Perfect. Shuggazoom City’s in trouble, the Monkeys are gone, and I can’t do anything, because I’m too scared of water.” He sat down in his pod, slumping dejectedly. “Some hero I turned out to be.”

“Chiro…” Amber sat down cross-legged on the floor next to him. “You’re a good hero. We’ll think of something. Don’t worry.” She rubbed his knee comfortingly, feeling his worry tinged with fear clearly. “Maybe… maybe you could use the Brain Scrambler? Use that to help the Monkeys out?”

Chiro threw his head back and let out a weak chuckle. “Good idea, sis, except one glaring problem.”

“Well, what’s that?”

“I can’t pilot the Brain Scrambler. That’s Antauri’s ship. I only know how to drive the Torso Tank.”

“Oh.” _Maybe I could borrow Chiro’s pressure suit? The Being only knows if it’d fit me—probably not, but I have to try, see if I can do something, anything… I have to try and help them, but wait, if I go out there, into the water, I’d be sitting dinner for those awful chompy things. No powers, no weapons to protect me… I’d be gobbled up before I got the chance to turn and run. Shit._ She was trying to think of anything she could do to prevent her brother having to go out there into the water and despite her best efforts was coming up rather empty.

All of a sudden Chiro sat bolt upright, eyes wide. “I’ve gotta go out there.”

Amber’s own eyes widened. “What?”

“I’m the last hope for the Monkey Team. It’s up to me. I’ve got to do something.” He rushed into the orange tube and took it downward. Amber stood up slowly, stunned by his determination.

Chiro returned in a few minutes, donned in his pressure suit and carrying the matching helmet. “Chiro, are you sure you want to do this?” Amber asked, brows furrowing in concern. “You don’t have to, we can figure something else out…”

“This is it, Amber, this is the only way,” Chiro said. “I have to face my fear in order to help the Monkey Team. I can’t… I can’t let my fear stop me anymore.”

Amber took a deep breath and nodded, kneeling down and putting both hands on his shoulders. “I’m proud of you.” She tapped her forehead against his and let go of his shoulders, leaning back on her heels. “Just please, please, please come back in one piece.”

Chiro grinned and put on his helmet. “Roger.”

The airlock took him outside and Amber watched his little blinky icon hover in place. For a long time, he remained in one spot, and she could feel his fear washing over him in waves like the tides themselves. There was also something deeper, darker, colder than the ocean’s depths, and Amber’s heart squeezed tight. She knew the feeling of that magic.

 _No!_ She pressed her hands tight to the console, the ridges in the panels digging into her fingers. _Chiro, please, fight it! You have to help them!_

The fear shifted into fierce determination, and Chiro’s icon began to move out into open water. Amber released her breath. _He’s swimming. More or less.  
_

Suddenly, the red triangles began to converge on Chiro’s icon. Amber grabbed the microphone. “Chiro, the things are back!”

“I see them, I see them!”

But despite whatever he was doing to fend them off, the triangles moved closer and closer and closer. Chiro screamed and it cut his sister to the heart. “No, Chiro! No!”

His icon blinked slowly once… then twice… and then it went out completely.

Amber’s heart stopped. “No, no, no!” She banged her fists on the console uselessly. He couldn’t be gone. She tried calling Chiro’s comm, then the comms of all the Monkeys in turn, but to no avail. The comm line buzzed then fell silent, only echoing Amber’s panicked cries back at her.

The girl sank to the floor in a haze. Her brother was gone, too. She raised her fist and brought it down to the floor hard. Everyone was gone, and she was trapped inside a giant robot that was underwater, holding up the weight of her entire city. It was insane.

She looked up at the Robot’s status screen. It was still stable, luckily. Most of the power, she could see, was diverted to the structure of the Robot keeping its burden steady. For a moment, she considered trying to boost communications, but, honestly, she didn’t know how to do that. The very last thing she wanted was to accidentally unlock the Robot’s joints and have all that weight come crashing down…

_No, no, no, don’t think about that. Don’t think about how the Monkeys and Chiro disappeared and you can’t find them. Don’t think about how you’ve been left alone here. Don’t think about how you can’t control the Super Robot. Don’t think about the weight, the… the burden that the Super Robot is somehow able to hold by itself. Don’t think about how a slight mistake, adjusting one setting or moving one lever could cost you everything. Don’t think about how helpless and afraid you are._

She put her face in her hands and tried to find some good in this.

_Well… you’re not hurt, right? And you don’t feel any hurt from Chiro, so he’s probably okay. You’d feel if he’s injured, and he’s not. That’s good. And if something… something really happened to him… you’d know. You’d know right away._

Well, that was true. She could still sense him through their empathy bond, so he was alive. And that knowledge took away some of her fear. It was probably like what Chiro had said to her before, that the positioning devices got broken somehow so the radar couldn’t pick him up, but besides he was okay still.

_And if Chiro’s okay, then he’s probably figured out how to help the Monkeys. Give him some time. He’ll make it. And if Chiro can rescue the Monkeys, then they can all take control of the Super Robot again. It’ll all be fine._

He was her brother, yes. Her little brother who she loved with all her soul. An adorable nerd who was whip smart beyond all expectation. He was such a good kid with such a good heart. But he was also a trained hero now. The Monkeys had helped form him into a hero, and she had seen him save those in need more times than she could count on both hands.

Sometimes she had trouble reconciling all the things that Chiro _was_ all into one person.

But no matter which part of him she concentrated on, the fact remained that Chiro was the leader of the Hyperforce. He was capable, and she had to believe in his capability.

He just needed time.

* * * * * * *

There was a violent rumbling from outside the Robot, and Amber jumped to her feet and dashed back to the window. From what she could see, squinting through the murky dark water, the munchy claw things were freezing up and turning gray, like stone. “What the heck?” she mumbled to herself. “How’s that even work?”

A yellow blur swam by her window and Amber gasped. “No way.” A loud hiss whooshed out behind her, the sound of the airlock opening. She turned around, heart pounding. “…Chiro?”

Chiro stepped out and took off his helmet. “Hey, sis. Sorry to keep you waiting.”

Amber bent down and hugged him tight to her. “Don’t scare me like that. I thought something happened to you,” she complained, shaking him a little before hugging him tight again. 

Chiro wrapped his own arms around her waist. “I’m back. We’re okay, all of us.” He tried to pull away, but she was still holding him tight. “Um, Amber? My suit’s still wet.”

Amber let go of him and looked down at her overalls that were, yes, now quite wet. “Yeah, you are. Ew.” She decided she didn’t care and hugged him again.

The Monkeys all came up behind Chiro in the airlock, shaking out dripping arms and tails and fur. Amber let go of her brother and directed her attention to them instead. “I thought… I thought… wait, what the heck _happened_ out there?”

“Well, the chompy monster tentacle thingies broke our rocket packs and our long-range communicators,” Otto explained.

Amber wiped her bangs out of her eyes. “Well, that explains why I couldn’t get a hold of any of you.”

The Monkeys quickly explained what had transpired on the sea floor, ending with the fact that all the tentacles had turned to stone and were now acting as Shuggazoom’s new foundation.

Amber blew out a long breath. “That’s some story. I’m glad you got rid of the monster, and it kind of worked out; now you don’t have to figure out how to shore up the city for the foreseeable future.”

“Yup,” Chiro said, rubbing his nose proudly.

“And you’ve faced your fear of water, I think,” she also noted.

Chiro nodded, looking quite a bit smug.

Amber knocked on his head with her knuckles. “Don’t let it get to your head. It’s big enough as it is.” The Monkeys laughed as Chiro swiped at her hand, looking chastised. “I am proud of you though. Really, really proud.” Chiro looked up at her and cracked a smile.

“But _you_!” Amber said, pointing suddenly at Sparx. “And you, and you, and you, and you, and you!” she said, pointing to each Monkey and Chiro in turn. “If you’re gonna start taking me on these missions and things, you need to teach me about the Super Robot! What if something had happened, like… like a power shortage, and I was here alone? I need to know how to use at least some basic functions just in case something crazy happens. I hate sitting here feeling useless and helpless and _alone_.”

The Monkeys looked at each other. Antauri turned to meet her eyes. “Point well made, Amber. We were wrong to not give any instruction. From now on, we will all teach you.”

“Geez, sis, when’d you get so paranoid?” Chiro asked.

_Always, always, always, as far as you’re concerned._

Amber took a deep breath. “Ever since I thought that you might not be coming back… and I was stuck underwater, underneath _the entire weight_ of Shuggazoom City, in a giant Super Robot that I had no idea how to control.” She flung her hands up wide. “What if the power had failed! And the city fell down and crushed—” She put her face in her hands. “Just… not my preferred way to die.”

Chiro put his hand on her arm. “Okay, okay, sorry I asked. Are you all right?”

Amber looked down at him and sighed, nodding.

“Okay then.” He looked over at his shoulder at the Monkeys and had an idea. “I know what will cheer you up.” He turned and faced the Monkey Team. “Good job, team. And a job well done deserves a reward. Who wants to go swimming?” The Monkeys cheered, voices raised in excitement, and after a moment, Amber joined the cheer.

* * * * * * *

_an hour later~_

Otto was ready to jump into the water when Amber finally made her way out of the Robot. “I’m here, I’m here, sorry for taking so long!”

She sat down on the edge of the cliff and looked way down at the water below. Chiro and Sparx were laughing and splashing each other, and Nova and Gibson were doing laps, racing back and forth across the width of the river. Antauri was lazily floating in the current and dutifully ignoring everybody.

Amber pulled her head back up and rubbed her eyes. Looking down too far for too long made her dizzy.

Otto poked her in the shoulder and she looked over at him. “You look good, Amber,” he said, giving her a thumbs up.

She blushed. “Thanks.” She ran her thumb under her navy blue tankini strap and adjusted the fit a little.

“You going in?” the green Monkey asked.

Amber tossed her braid over her shoulder and chanced another brief look down the deep cliff. “Yeah, but how do I get down there?”

“Well, there’s a path way over there,” Otto pointed, “but this way is much better.” He took a running, flying leap off the cliff into the water far below. “Monkey Tsunami!” The huge _kasplash_ he made when he landed in the river swamped everyone unfortunate enough to be in the area.

Amber shook her head. “I don’t think I’m going to do that.” She got back to her feet, stretched, and took the little path down the cliff instead.

Chiro laughed and waved at his sister. “Glad you could make it!”

Amber kicked off her flip-flops and made a clean dive into the cool water. Popping up for breath, she swam over to Chiro’s little group. She treaded water and wiped her bangs out of her eyes. “Did I miss anything?”

“Nova found one of those stone claw things and scared me and Sparx half to death with it,” Chiro replied, shaking his head.

Amber looked over at the yellow Monkey who was innocently ignoring Chiro’s words. “Nova, did you really?”

Nova tilted her head at the girl. “It was so funny, you should have seen the look on their faces,” she chuckled.

Amber shook her head and splashed the yellow Monkey in the face.

“HEY!” she yowled in protest.

And then it just escalated from there- they were all splashing and diving and laughing so much they couldn’t breath. It was a break from all their problems, big and small. It was messy and crazy and so much fun, and Amber was so thankful for that.

And Chiro wasn’t afraid of water anymore. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The ending with them all swimming and playing together made me feel all warm and fuzzy when I wrote it :) I love Chiro getting to have fun with the Monkeys, and it's really nice that Amber gets to share in that fun too! Also, since Amber asked to learn more about the Super Robot, this will come up again in future chapters as she spends more time with the Monkeys and they start teaching her!
> 
> The next chapter will be S1E5, _The Sun Riders!_ (I did skip _Planetoid Q_ and _Magnetic Menace_ for story streamlining purposes. I will skip episodes once in a while for this story, but not too often. The events of those two episodes did happen in this AU, I just didn't cover them in the story, in case you were wondering!)
> 
> If you have questions or anything about Amber or this AU please come say hi on my tumblr [ sweetcircuits!](https://sweetcircuits.tumblr.com)


	5. in which Chiro faces his childhood heroes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, it's been a month since I updated again! I hurt my hands and couldn't type for over a week, then I had finals, and I'm also going on vacation soon so I have to get ready for that! But since I'm going to be gone until the new year I wanted to drop this chapter since it was ready! So here's chapter 5, we have two brief flashbacks first, then we jump into Amber trying to figure out how to help the team with their Sun Riders problem.
> 
> This chapter is based on S1E5, _The Sun Riders!_

_~eight years ago~_

Amber gripped Chiro’s little hand tightly in hers as they crossed the street. He was unusually quiet today—normally he chattered on about school, all the big words he was learning to read, all the cool science things he was learning about, about how high he climbed on the monkey bars during recess. She looked down at him and squeezed his hand a little tighter. He looked up at her and pouted. “It’s okay, Chiro,” she said comfortingly. “Momma’s gonna clean you up good as new and get you a new band-aid.”

Chiro looked down at the scuffed up white and green dotted bandaid covering his kneecap. He did like the band-aids they had at home better. “I’m sorry, Amber, I… I…” he snuffled.

“It was an accident,” Amber reminded him as they turned down their own street. “You just tripped, that’s all, and the pavement was mean to you.”

The first-graders had been kicking a ball around during recess and Chiro had run to fetch it for his turn to kick. He’d tripped and scuffed up his knee pretty badly in the process. Of course, his teacher had then sent him to the nurse with one of the other little boys, and the nice nurse had wiped down the scrape and given him a band-aid for it. He was fine. But still, he wanted his mom to kiss it and make it better.

Amber gave him a sympathetic smile. “Chiro, I’m always tripping and messing up my knees. You know, every summer I manage to give myself a brand-new knee injury. Don’t feel bad.”

“I know, sis,” he replied, taking his blue hat off and shaking out his hat head. He looked up at her with his big blue eyes. “Okay. Mommy’s gonna make it better.”

Amber grinned at him. “Momma’s a very good nurse. She’ll have you better in no time.”

They caught sight of their house over the curve of the sidewalk and jogged a little faster. Amber reached their sidewalk first and caught her breath as Chiro caught up to her.

“Look, Daddy’s car,” Chiro said, tugging on her skirt and pointing.

Amber stood up straight and looked toward where his little finger was pointing. Yup, that was Dad’s red hovercar sitting next to Mom’s pale blue-green one. “Dad’s home early!” she squealed.

They dashed up the walk to the house and Amber twisted the doorknob, pushing the door open. “Momma! We…” she called. The rest of her sentence faded away as loud complaints rang out from the kitchen.

“Ray!”

“I’m so sorry, Ruka.”

“Oh, Ray, your favorite jacket, too…”

“Eh, Amber can sew the jacket. She’s good with needles and thread—ow!”

“Sorry, love. Are these… are these electrical burns?”

“…yes.”

A loud huff. “Ray, what’s Health and Safety even doing over there?”

A quiet chuckle. “It’s not their fault, Ruka, the engine I was working on just turned on unexpectedly and it zapped me. I had my insulated gloves, so it wasn’t even as bad as it could have been.”

“You have to be more careful. I’m so glad it’s my day off today and I was home to be able to fix you up. I can’t believe you drove all the way home from the Industrial District with these injuries.”

“They’re not bad, I’ve had worse. I’m all right, love. Even better, actually, since you’re here doting on me.”

A sigh. “You’re ridiculous.”

“You love me, though!”

Another sigh, lighter and more amused. “Yes, I do.”

Chiro shut the front door with a sharp click and Amber threw her bookbag over by the coat closet. “Momma! Dad! We’re home!”

"Kids!” came their dad’s glad reply.

The siblings stuck their heads around the corner of the kitchen doorway and were interested to see their father sitting in a chair in the middle of the kitchen floor with white bandages wrapped around his hands and arms. He must have gotten hurt at work. Amber sighed.

Their dad worked in Carrington Industries’ Mechanical Engineering Division, which dealt with a ton of different products ranging from hovercars to small androids to computer systems. It was a really cool job where he got to design, build, and repair a lot of neat projects and machines. But… sometimes it wasn’t the safest job ever. Dad came home once every couple of weeks with cuts, bruises, or burns on his arms and hands, and every time Mom would fuss over him and bandage him up. He sopped up the attention like a sponge, he was ridiculous like that, but he would always repay her with gifts and dinners and things once his hands got better. Her work never went unappreciated. He made sure of that.

Dad waved, catching her attention. “Hey, kids! How was school?”

“Daddy!” Chiro whooped, rushing over to him and earning himself a cautious cuddle. “Dad! We learned something cool today!”

“Oh, that sounds awesome!” Ray chuckled, picking him up and setting him on his lap. “Do tell.”

“Momma, Chiro got hurt at school,” was the first thing out of Amber’s mouth as she stepped into the kitchen.

Haruka jerked up straight. “Oh, stars in heaven. What is it with you boys and getting all scraped up today? Good thing I have the med kits already out.” She turned to her son, who was in the middle of explaining double digit subtraction to her husband. She knelt down next to them and waited for Chiro to finish his eager explanation. When he took a breath to switch topics, she gently interrupted. “Chiro, honey, what happened at school?”

“I learned about sea monsters, too!”

Haruka let out a quiet chuckle. “That’s very cool, but where are you hurt?”

“Oh.” Chiro’s face fell. “I tripped on the playground.” He showed her his knee. “Can I have a new band-aid?”

His mother smiled. “Of course you can.” Within a few moments, she had the injury re-cleaned and bandaged, and she placed a gentle kiss above it for good measure. “All better.”

Amber smiled and clapped her hands and Ray turned his attention over to her. “Oh, hi, Amber! Thank you for watching out for your brother.”

“Of course, Dad!”

“Now tell me all about your day. How’s multiplication tables?”

“I hate them. They’re the absolute worst.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Chiro sat contentedly on his dad’s lap as he languidly flipped channels. “Nothing good, Dad?” Amber said, slapping her workbook closed and zipping her pencil case back up.

“Ugh, nothing I want to watch,” her dad said. “Hmm.”

Amber put her work back in her backpack and put it by the front door. When she came back, her dad was tapping his chin thoughtfully. “Hmm. I think I know what I want to watch.”

“Something fun?” Amber said, climbing up onto the couch next to him.

Her dad grinned, a bright, excited smile that lit up his entire face. “It’s so fun. I think Chiro’s old enough for it now. My absolute favorite show when I was a kid.”

“The Sun Riders!” Amber said, eyes brightening. “Of course!”

“There’s nothing better to cheer you up after a bad day than watching some bad guys get busted,” Ray said confidently. “And the Sun Riders is the absolute best. I stand by that.”

Chiro tumbled off his dad’s lap and into his sister’s as his dad got up and made his way over to the DVD cabinet. After a couple minutes of deliberation, he selected one. “This one looks promising.”

“Which one, which one?” Amber asked eagerly.

“Season one, episode three. _Errant Eclipse._ A good place to start, I think, for a beginner.”

“I’m not a beginner, though,” Amber pouted. “I’ve seen this show before.”

“You may not be a beginner, but your brother is,” Ray pointed out. “And besides, maybe you’ll notice something new in rewatching. That always happened to me when I was little, I always noticed new details every time I rewatched an episode.”

“Okay,” Amber sighed, pulling a blanket off the top of the couch. “Errant Eclipse it is.”

Ray slid the DVD into the player. “And don’t spoil it for your brother. I want him to see it brand new.”

“Yeah, Amber, no spoilers,” Chiro echoed.

Amber plopped the blanket on top of his head and pouted, and he giggled.

“Both of you shush, it’s starting,” Ray said as he sat back down on the couch again. He rescued his son from under the cover and helped his daughter spread it out over all three of them. “You ready to watch the coolest superhero team ever?”

“Yeah!” Chiro said, wiggling excitedly under the blanket. If his dad was super excited about this show, that meant it was going to be really, really cool and he couldn’t wait to find out all about it.

“Light above darkness, forever! Sun Riders, fight on!”

* * * * * * *

_~two years ago~_

Amber opened the DVD cabinet. “Okay, we’ve got some time. What do you want to watch?” Her fingers traced over the DVD jackets, each colorful cover enclosing a wonderful adventure waiting to be explored. “We still have that _Magical Mystery_ series that Mom recorded for us— _pfft,_ that was a while ago, we should really watch that…” Chiro inserted himself under her arm and looked up at her imploringly. “…aaand you want to watch _Sun Riders_ again, don’t you?” she sighed.

Chiro closed his eyes and nodded enthusiastically.

Amber sat back on her heels and raised an eyebrow, even though her mouth was turning up in amusement. “I fail to see why you don’t enjoy a little more… _variety_ in your tv diet.”

Chiro folded his arms. “Well, I fail to see how you fail to see that it’s awesome!”

Amber laughed at that. It was, and she knew it. Sun Riders was super sentai, and as a general rule of thumb, super sentai was pretty cool. “It is awesome, and it’s your favorite, too.” She ruffled his hair as he planted himself in front of the row of orange dvd’s. “You can pick the episode, if you want.”

“I want to watch _Origins_ , if that’s okay,” Chiro said, picking the very first dvd out of its tiny allotted space. “I like the Sun Riders’ origin story. My favorite part is when Johnny finds out that the gloves he picked up from an antique store are actually solar-powered hero gloves!”

Amber stood up and began folding her blanket absentmindedly. Despite the fact that Chiro was only twelve, and as far as she could figure, Johnny Sunspot was probably in his early teens, Chiro really did see a lot of himself in him. “Is that why you keep walking past the thrift store when we go out for errands?”

“I keep hoping I’m gonna find something that’s gonna… that’s gonna transform me into a superhero!” Chiro said as he gently pried the dvd out of the jacket. “Like a ring, or a… a belt or a scarf, or something.”

“’Cause that’s what you want to be when you grow up. A superhero?”

Chiro slid the dvd into the player, nodding his head vigorously. “Yeah! I want to… to have superpowers, like the Sun Riders, and be able to help and protect people, and also maybe have a cool spaceship or super robot that I can use to fly to other planets and see what’s out there!”

“That’s the Dad in you talking,” Amber said, sitting down on the couch and picking up the remote. “He loved traveling the universe more than anything—until he met Mom, of course.”

“Because he was a pilot! A great pilot!” Chiro plopped himself down next to her on the couch. “I wonder if I’ll ever be an awesome pilot like him.” He tapped his finger on his knee, thinking. “…I wonder if I’ll ever become a superhero like the Sun Riders…”

Amber handed him half of their blanket as the beginning credits began to roll. “I think that you definitely could become a superhero if you wanted to.”

“You’re just saying that because you’re my sister. You don’t really believe that. It’s all just luck.”

Amber tapped him on the nose and he swatted at her hand halfheartedly. “You’re special, Chiro. I think that there’s always a chance that something wonderful could happen. You just have to keep your eyes open and look for something that nobody else can see.”

“Like Johnny with the gloves?”

“Just like that.”

He snuggled close to her as the opening credits closed. “Light above darkness, forever!” they cheered together as the episode title faded in.

* * * * * * *

_~present day~_

_Do-do do-do dodo-do dododo do…_

Amber cracked one eye open. She wasn’t sure she’d heard it, maybe it was just in her dream.

_Do-do do-do dodo-do dododo do…_

Nope, it was real.

Amber groaned and climbed out of bed and plodded down the stairs. Chiro and Otto had gleefully gifted her with a special custom doorbell that would play the Hyperforce’s special ringtone. That way they could let her know that it was the Hyperforce that was visiting. It wasn’t in the same place as the regular doorbell, rather it was down quite a bit, at about Monkey height, and hidden behind a little door that would open when a certain piece of decoration on the doorframe was pressed. That way it wouldn’t be rung by accident. That’s what Gibson figured, anyway.

She wasn’t even sure why they’d done that, except that Chiro had insisted. Once she’d revealed herself to the Monkeys, and she’d been unofficially inducted into the Hyperforce, Chiro had delighted in the fact that he could visit her once more. And just in case that visit happened to be on Hyperforce business…. yeah, it made sense that he would want a special way to let her know the whole team was dropping in.

_Do-do do-do dodo-do dododo do…_

_And that’s what they’re doing right now._ Amber sighed and pulled the door open. The doorbell’s tone was true and it was the Hyperforce who stood on her porch. “What happened?”

Sparx crossed his arms. “Why’d you have to assume that something happened? Maybe we were just in the neighborhood and wanted to say hi.”

“It’s one thirty in the morning,” she said, wiping her bangs out of her face and holding them out of her eyes. “Something happened.”

“We… uh… kinda got kicked out of the Robot,” Otto provided.

Chiro lunged for her and wrapped his arms around her waist, pressing his nose against her collarbone.

“You… got kicked… out… of the Robot…” she repeated slowly. She blinked her eyes tight, willing her synapses to start firing. “What? Who did that?”

“The Sun Riders,” Chiro muttered against her chest.

“What?”

The Monkeys all started to explain at once.

“Okay, okay,” she said, raising her voice above the cacophony. “Come in, everyone. We’ll talk about this inside.”

The Monkeys trooped into the house and Chiro detached himself from his sister and followed them. Amber closed, latched, and leaned on the door. “Again, but slower this time.”

Chiro explained what had transpired, beginning with the skirmish with the Formless and ending with them stealing the Sun Cycle to escape.

Amber took a deep breath and put both her hands very, very gently on Chiro’s shoulders. “Chiro, I really, really, _truly_ hope that this is not a surprise to you, at your age… but the Sun Riders aren’t real people. They’re characters from a tv show.”

“It seems that stories and reality have gotten a bit mixed up,” Antauri noted with just a hint of amusement.

Amber rubbed the heel of her hand against her temple and let out a sharp bark of laughter. “Yes, that’s exactly what I need to hear in the middle of the night when I haven’t slept any significant amount in twenty-six hours.”

“It’s true, though, Amber,” Nova said. “They were there, we fought them. We had to get out of there before they hurt Chiro more.”

Amber took a deep breath and looked at her brother’s face, and he looked as serious as she’d ever seen him. She looked around at all the Monkeys and all their expressions were just as serious. That, at least, told her that they were telling the truth. Not that that truth wasn’t absurd. “Well, I kind of doubt you _all_ hallucinated it.” She let out a long sigh. She was almost too tired to try and sort out her own emotions, let alone her brother’s, but crackling and tingling and pulsing along their bond she could feel them, and they were angry. Chiro had held these characters in high esteem for his whole entire life, so for him to be angry, resentful, vindictive toward them? That worried her.

Well, in his defense, they had said that Skeleton King wanted him dead, and they themselves had tried to hurt if not outright kill him. Vindictiveness was not an abnormal reaction. And… this also wouldn’t be the _first_ time Chiro’s entire worldview had been shattered and put back together with all the pieces inside out.

“It’s Skeleton King’s fault,” Chiro spat out, fists shaking at his sides. “Aurora Six… Aurora Six said they’d gotten that solar zap jacket from Skeleton King. They’re obeying him.”

“They had a _zap jacket?”_ Amber’s voice climbed an octave, knowing instantly who that zap jacket had been used on. She shouldn’t be as surprised as she was - Chiro had just explained what had happened and had mentioned the zap jacket… but the second mention of it, the reinforcing of that incident, scared her worse than it had the first time. “Chiro!”

Chiro nodded.

“Are you… are you _okay_?” Zap jackets were nothing to sneeze at. The zap jackets used in the show emitted long electrical frequencies. Humans weren’t designed to withstand that much exposure to pure electricity. Their hearts and brains, their whole nervous systems, could stutter and even stop. She put her hand over her heart, fingers trembling. Chiro was durable now, she reminded herself. He was strong and durable, almost invulnerable, and he even controlled electricity. He was probably not much worse for wear, even from something like that.

Chiro rubbed the back of his head. “Y-yeah, I’m okay. I just…” He folded his arms over his chest tightly. “I’m just so angry that I fell for their tricks. I helped them fight off the Formless, I brought them into the Robot, I wanted to train with them. And they were so cool, everything I ever hoped they’d be!” He ground the heels of his hands into his eyes and his body shook with the frustration creeping into his voice. “And they betrayed us! They were allied with Skeleton King!” He looked up at his sister, fists shaking again. “I’m mad they betrayed us, but I’m mad that I fell for it, too! I was stupid to believe them, stupid to trust them, now the Robot’s under their control!”

Amber could sense his anger very clearly now. “Chiro… Chiro, it’s all right.” She put her hand on his shoulder and he didn’t flinch away from her touch. “I’ll tell you what, Chiro, if I were you, I’d have done the exact same thing, no questions asked. I wouldn’t have ever thought that the tv heroes I looked up to my whole life would have been real life bad guys.”

Nova put her hand on his arm. “I think the stars in your eyes blinded you just a little bit, Chiro.”

Chiro let out a long, defeated breath and calmed down a little bit. “I didn’t mean for this to happen, I’m so sorry…”

“Don’t worry, Chiro,” Otto said, smiling. “We’ll get ‘em. And we’ll get the Super Robot back, too.”

Gibson nodded. “Agreed.”

Amber put both her hands on her brother’s shoulders again and she could sense his anger had subsided. But underneath that anger… he was heartbroken. She rubbed her thumbs over the orange marks covering his cheeks. Oh, Chiro. He felt betrayed and distraught—and she didn’t even really need the empathy bond to tell her that, it was written all over him in his furrowed eyebrows and shaking shoulders. “You remember what Mom always said was the best cure for a heartache?” she asked him softly.

Chiro snorted and rubbed his eye with the heel of his hand, wiping away the film of frustrated tears that had cropped up there. “Yeah.”

“ _Chocolate_ ,” they said at the same time.

“I have some cookies left over from the middle of last week but I think a situation like this calls for a fresh batch,” Amber said, pressing a kiss to his forehead. “If you guys are going to be here for a little while, I’ll make you some cookies. Or better, brownies, if I can find the recipe.”

Chiro chuckled and nodded. Their mom had always said that, and Amber believed it implicitly—which was why she always baked when she was stressed out about something. “You don’t have to, sis… but you know what, that would be kinda nice.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Amber said, ruffling his hair a little.

Her thoughts turned back to the whole situation with the Sun Riders. She rubbed her eyes tiredly and tried to process the fact that the Sun Riders were apparently real live people. Skeleton King had given them weapons to fight against the Hyperforce. Had he… lifted the characters straight from the show, brought them to life with his magic? _Hmm_. Maybe… maybe it was possible that… these were the character’s actual actors? She didn’t know much about the Sun Riders’ actors, or what had happened to them after the show ended, so it was possible…? _Powers we’ve only dreamed of, he has made real for us,_ Chiro had told her Aurora Six had said. Maybe. But how? She groaned. Honestly, no option she considered for how this entire situation had come to be made any sense and she decided to not worry about it. It didn’t matter. The fact remained, that the Sun Riders were real, they’d made themselves enemies of the Hyperforce, and Chiro was in danger. She turned to the Monkey Team. “All right, so what do you guys know about the Sun Riders?”

“A sufficient amount,” Antauri answered.

“Yeah, Chiro explained it to us in detail already,” Nova said.

“Why? Do you not know anything about it?” Otto asked.

Amber smiled. “I raised this kid,” she said, pointing to Chiro. “I know more about the Sun Riders than any living being on Shuggazoom, except him.” _I can honestly say, without exaggerating, that Chiro’s probably the Sun Riders’ biggest fan._

“That is a fair point,” Gibson conceded.

“I mean, I like it too. It’s a fun show and it’s always held good memories for us since the one who introduced us to it was our dad, actually.”

Chiro gave a very slow nod. That was right. It had been a favorite of his dad’s when he was a kid, and he deeply instilled his enjoyment of that show into both his kids, though his son got a bigger portion of it than his daughter! Most of the Sun Riders things Chiro owned, the action figures, the full dvd set his sister had, most of them had been his dad’s things. Except the poster. The poster he’d found at the store in the discount bin and bought it himself. The corner of his mouth turned up at the memory.

The room was quiet for a few minutes before Amber spoke again. “You guys could probably use a few minutes to catch your breaths, right?”

Antauri looked up at Chiro, expecting him to refuse, but the boy nodded in agreement.

“Okay.” Amber squatted down to Monkey eye level. “I know this isn’t exactly the best circumstances, but this is your first real visit to our house. My house? Anyway, Chiro, if you want, you can show them around a little bit, then we can talk and try and figure out what to do about the Super Robot.”

Chiro nodded again, and in that instant of silence his stomach growled loudly. Sparx hid a snicker behind his hand.

“Oh, so you _are_ hungry. I don’t suppose you could use a pick-me-up?” Amber said, smiling.

Chiro put his hand over his stomach sheepishly. “I guess I could use a snack. You did say you were gonna make brownies or something.”

Amber laughed. “Always hungry. Nothing ever changes.” She stood up and tightened her robe tie. “Okay, go see the house and I’ll find something for you to eat, and maybe get a start on the brownies.”

Antauri folded his arms. As much as he appreciated how Amber was trying to help, he did not think that now was the correct time for a lengthy tour. “Chiro, I would like to see your house, very much actually, as I am sure we all would—” Sparx nodded, and after a moment, Nova, Otto and Gibson followed suit, “—but I do not believe that now is the right time. We do not know what the Sun Riders are up to.”

“It is good that we have a moment to rest, but we cannot hide forever,” Gibson supplemented kindly.

Chiro’s mouth twisted and he sighed, closing his eyes. “You’re right.” He looked up at his sister apologetically. “Next time I’ll give them the grand tour.”

“No, it’s okay, Chiro.” Amber wrapped her robe tie between her fingers tightly. “It was just a suggestion. I’m just… trying to figure out how to help you here. There’s not much I can do in a situation like this…”

“And we do not expect you to,” Antauri said.

“Yeah, you gave us a place to hide, that’s good enough,” Nova said.

“Thanks for that,” Otto said, smiling at her.

“You’re welcome, Otto. I’m glad to help, even if it isn’t much.” Amber put her hand on her hip and looked back at Chiro, who had his chin in his hand worriedly. “Okay, let’s think. How are you gonna get the Super Robot back?”

“Super Quasar, Aurora Six, and Johnny Sunspot took over the Super Robot,” Chiro thought out loud. “They kind of forced us out and we had to escape.”

Gibson rubbed his head. “What we need is a… a weakness. A loophole, a crack, anything that we can exploit.”

“We need more information,” Nova added. “We don’t know enough about the Sun Riders to figure out how to take them down.”

“I mean, Chiro knows a lot about the Sun Riders,” Amber told them, folding her arms.

“Yes,” Antauri said. “However, we,” he gestured to the Monkey Team, “do not. And we do not have the capability to get that knowledge from his mind into our own.”

“We need…” Gibson said, gesturing shortly with his hands, “We need more information, something that can be easily searched, yet detailed…”

Amber’s eyes widened. “Like… a guide?”

Chiro sat up pin straight and looked right at his sister. “A guide!” He furrowed his eyebrows. “You still have it?”

Amber folded her arms over the top of the recliner and grinned. “It’s the only book you didn’t take with you, ‘cause it was—”

“—too big,” Chiro breathed. He leaped to his feet, Monkeys scrambling to get out of his way.

“It’s where you left it!” Amber yelled after him as he took the stairs up two at a time.

He was back down in less than a minute, a huge white book tucked under his arm. He slapped it down on the coffee table and the table winced under the weight. _The Sun Riders Complete Visual Dictionary_ was embossed on the front cover in great orange letters. The Monkeys crowded around Chiro as he opened the cover. It was maybe fifteen inches long by twelve inches wide and maybe an inch thick.

“Wow,” Nova said, awestruck.

“Where’d you get this, Chiro?” Otto asked.

Amber put one hand on the table, leaning over Chiro’s head and around the crowd of Robot Monkeys. “I forget which birthday this was. It was from Mom and Dad, so it had to have been… eighth or before.”

There was an inscription on the top corner of the inside of the cover in his mother’s careful cursive. Chiro ran his thumb over the black ink. _Happy seventh birthday to our favorite little hero. Lots of love, Mom and Dad._ He bit his lip. “Yeah. My seventh birthday.”

“You’ve really been a fan for a long time, huh, kid?” Sparx noted.

“Yup.” Chiro turned the page to the table of contents. The visual dictionary contained almost every detail you could ever want to know about the Sun Riders. Details of their costumes, cross-sections of their weapons and vehicles, their backstories, even little sections on background characters and enemies. Chiro knew most of the information by heart—he’d read this book cover to cover at least a handful of times, but they needed to find something that could help them now.

For the better part of an hour the Monkeys took turns scanning through the dictionary’s pages, looking for any information that could help them take back the Super Robot. Sparx looked first, then Otto, then Gibson, then Nova, then Antauri took a turn, then Gibson joined him, poring over the sleek white pages. Amber brought each of the Monkeys some tea and Chiro made himself a sandwich. The smell of chocolate wafted out of the kitchen as Amber, true to her word, whipped up a batch of brownies for everyone. It was just as well that she had something to do while the Monkeys all looked through the book, anyway. And it helped keep her mind off her own fear and worry.

“Look, Nova,” Otto said, pointing at page 50. “Aurora Six’s Sun Gun can emit laser blasts of up to 700 kelvins.”

“And yet our robotic bodies can bear temperatures of up to 850 kelvins,” Gibson said with a smirk.

Nova tossed her head and flipped the page with her tail. “Hmph.”

“This is all real interesting,” Sparx noted with only a hint of frustration. “Never had a manual for defeating our enemies before.”

Amber brought Chiro a brownie warm out of the oven and the look of pure happiness on his face as he bit into it soothed her heart. She took Chiro’s empty plate and a couple of empty mugs and looked over at the Monkeys. “Find anything?”

“No,” Otto, Nova, and Gibson chorused.

“Not yet, but I’m afraid we are running out of time,” Antauri said.

“That’s what I’m worried about,” Chiro said, wincing.

“I’m at a loss to find a weak spot,” Gibson said, leaning back and putting his elbows on his knees. “Forgoing that, we need something to at least put ourselves on equal footing with them, something we can use to try and take back our Super Robot.”

“Equal footing?” Antauri mused.

Amber and Chiro looked at each other. “The Nebutron!” they said at the same time.

Chiro whirled the book around, snatching it out from under Sparx’s surprised fingers, and turned toward the index in the back of it. “N… N… Ne… Neb… there!” He turned to page 45 and there it was, in all its spherical orange-and-white glory. The Nebutron 7. All the details of its quantum-energy core drives, its weapons systems including laser cannons, missiles and solar-beam blasts, the blueprints of the cockpit and which controls were at each Sun Rider’s station – everything was in the book. The Nebutron 7 was a mecha to be reckoned with.

The whole team stared at the page for a solid minute and Amber started to worry. Sparx finally spoke up first. “You know what? It might work.”

“Where are we gonna get a Nebutron?” Otto asked, brows crinkled up in worry.

“I might have an idea,” Gibson said. “Chiro, I think there’s something you need to see.”

Chiro looked over at him, eyebrows shooting up. “What’re you thinking, Gibson?”

“You remember what Johnny Sunspot said about the Nebutron 7? How they left it at Starbase X-22 for repairs?” The corner of Gibson’s mouth quirked up. “I have a hypothesis as to where Starbase X-22 might be located.”

Chiro snapped his fingers. “Of course! If we can borrow the Nebutron 7, we can use it to fight back! All the cool gadgets and weapons it has, there’s gotta be something that’ll help us get our Super Robot back.”

“That’s a great idea, Gibson,” Nova said, pounding one fist into her other palm. “Let’s go get it, so we can fight fire with fire!”

The floor shook suddenly, interrupting all further conversation. The shaking was accompanied by a distinct stomping sound.

“Those are Super Robot footsteps,” Amber said quietly.

“You can tell that they’re from our Super Robot?” Antauri asked, looking up at the girl.

Amber snorted. “I’ve been woken up by Super Robot stomps in the middle of the night enough times to be able to tell what they sound like.” She motioned for the team to follow her into the kitchen, and all of them looked up and out the full-length glass window.

“There’s nothing,” Sparx noted dryly.

"Nothing yet,” Gibson corrected.

Chiro grabbed one side of the curtain and his sister grabbed the other and together they drew them closed. Nova snuck a peek through the curtain as Amber tied them together.

Another stomp shook the floor and Otto jumped. “I think they might be getting closer.”

“Could it be possible that they are using the Super Robot’s radar systems to track us down?” Gibson asked.

“They shouldn’t know how,” Sparx maintained. “They’re not actually pilots and the Super Robot’s systems are actually kinda complicated if you don’t know how to use ‘em.”

There was another stomp, louder again. Nova whirled the curtains closed.

Amber turned around and faced the team, tightening her robe tie nervously. “Even if they don’t know where you are, they do sound like they’re getting close.”

“We should go, then,” Chiro said. “I don’t want you to get caught in the middle of this.”

Amber nodded. “Thank you, Chiro.” She reached out and caught his hand as he turned to go back to the door. “If the Sun Riders have all their weapons and powers that they have in the show, they’re very dangerous enemies. And if Skeleton King gave them those powers, well…” Her brows furrowed into an exhausted, worried line. “Please be careful.”

Chiro gave her a sharp nod. “We will. I promise.” He pumped his fist. “Those… those _hacks_ are gonna be sorry they messed with a real superhero team.”

“All right.” Amber let go of his hand and the team assembled at his side. “Best of luck. Be safe, all of you.”

“Gibson, you sure you know where the Sun Riders are keeping the Nebutron 7?” Chiro asked as the team made their way out onto the front lawn.

The blue Monkey nodded. “I don’t know for certain, but I have an idea. I will explain the rest on the way.”

Amber leaned against the doorframe and watched as the team ran around the corner of the house. Chiro got into a white-and-orange motorcycle and the Monkeys all piled into the sidecar. They sped off before Amber could raise her arm to wave at them. That was just as well. They had a very big problem ahead of them.

Amber closed the door and sighed. It was still… still very new to her to be anything closer than on the fringes of the duties of the Hyperforce. It was like… like she’d been on the outside looking in on them, connected only by the very thin thread that was Chiro telling her all about the Monkeys and about his responsibilities. But ever since the day she’d been revealed to the team, it had felt more and more like that thread was broadening into a cord that was being drawn tighter and tighter, closer and closer to her brother and his team. She was becoming entangled in the calling of the Hyperforce, as one of their allies, and while that concept did scare her, she couldn’t deny that she was glad to be of aid.

She’d always told Chiro that no matter what he needed help with, if he needed her, she’d be there. That was why she’d gone on a subterranean voyage last week, to be the little bit of support he needed to fully face his fear. It made sense, then, that having been evicted from his Super Robot, from his home, that her brother would come to her. And it made her heart warm, in a way, that despite having five very capable warriors and mentors with him, he would still come to her in a time of need.

She yawned and picked up the big book off the coffee table, hefting it up under her arm and ascending the stairs once more. _Back to bed._ _Work in the morning._ This was the second time something insane had happened in the middle of the night, and she really hoped that this wasn’t going to keep happening.

Who was she kidding? Skeleton King never discriminated whether he attacked by day or night. It was all just chance. _Does he… sleep? I wonder._ She slid the book back onto the empty bookshelf in Chiro’s room, where it belonged, and yawned again.

She got back in bed and pulled her covers up to her chin. It would be all right. Gibson had sounded like he had an idea, and she was willing to believe that somehow, the team would figure out how to make that plan work.

She smiled at that, and drifted off into dreams that were filled with bright flashes and lasers and explosions, silver and orange super robots clashing for the fate of the universe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really wanted Chiro to have a little bit more emotional support in this chapter, given that all his childhood dreams just got shattered! I wanted him to have some time to process everything, to work through his heartbreak and self-blame, before having to run out and find the Nebutron. I also really enjoyed the bit of advice Amber gives about chocolate being good for heartbreak, because it really explains her stress baking tendencies! And lastly, the team doesn't have time to tour Amber's house in this chapter, because they have a hijacked Super Robot on the loose, but in a future chapter they will get the chance to see it, and so will you!
> 
> Yes, _Errant Eclipse_ is a reference to _Planetoid Q!_ I decided that for any in-story Sun Riders show episodes, I was going to parallel them as close as I could to the SRMTHFG show. (You saw this a bit already in ch 3 where Chiro references the four part S2-finale-S3-opener, which is a reference to the I Chiro saga!) I think it's really fun, and it gives me the opportunity to make a lot of meta jokes! :3
> 
> The next chapter will be S1E6, _The Secret of the Sixth Monkey!_
> 
> If you guys are curious about anything about Amber, this fic, or this AU, really, please come say hi at my tumblr [ sweetcircuits!](https://sweetcircuits.tumblr.com)


	6. in which the Hyperforce's past and present leadership clash

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These chapter updates are getting few and far between, huh? XD I've had about six different story WIP's all clamoring to be written at the same time, and this update for MBK got put a little bit on the back burner, sorry! In chapter 6 here, we have a certain power-hungry orange Monkey returning to wreak havoc on Shuggazoom, some set up for Amber's powers and character arc going forward, and some sweet sibling bonding!
> 
> This chapter is based on S1E6, _Secret of the Sixth Monkey!_

Amber leaned against one of the round pod-chairs and tried to focus on the video that was today’s lesson for the team. Antauri had called her earlier in the morning and asked if she would like to sit in on their strategy session, citing her need to learn about the team’s capabilities. She’d agreed and met the team in the Super Robot, and Gibson played for them a recording of the Hyperforce’s earlier battle. It wasn’t one where she’d been personally present, as it was an early morning battle.

She ran her fingers through her bangs as the Chiro in the recording screamed in fright as a huge spike impaled itself through the Super Robot’s armor directly in front of his nose. Her heart palpitated in her chest and she tamped down the worry. Chiro was all right, he was standing right there not currently shish-ka-bobbed. That aspect of the incident she had felt, despite not being present. She had been in the middle of waking up and getting ready when she’d felt a spike of fear slam into her chest, and she knew it was from her brother. At least… at least now she knew what had caused it—even though that knowledge did not serve to comfort her in any way. She put a hand on her chest and took a breath to calm herself.

Forcing herself to pay attention once more, she noticed Chiro and the Monkeys discussing what was happening as the recording played in the background. _Discussed_ was a rather strong word, she amended, as Chiro wasn’t contributing much other than touting his own brilliance. _He sure can be full of himself when he feels the need to be, and I guess adding one more victory to his repertoire sure isn’t helping here. Though, you’d rather have him win than lose! Well, hopefully whatever Antauri’s getting at will help him anyway._

“Lasatron Fury!” the recording of Chiro cried.

Amber raised her hand. “Antauri?”

The black Monkey turned. “Yes, Amber? Do you have a suggestion?”

“Well, no, not a suggestion… but Chiro, you know the strongest attack isn’t always the first thing you should do… if you drain all your energy on the first big attack, you won’t have any for any more attacks after that.”

Chiro’s mouth twisted into the grin she knew so well. “Sometimes the strongest attack is the only thing to do.”

Amber sighed. Her brother could sometimes just completely miss the point, it would fly right over his head— but hopefully the Monkeys could hammer the lesson home better than she could. This was their department, after all. She hadn’t yet been taught much in the Super Robot department herself. Between Chiro’s lessons, the Monkeys’ other duties, and Amber’s own job and responsibilities, their slots of free time had not quite overlapped. Sparx had gone through the trouble of going through the big console in the main room with her, so she did now know how to use the radar and communicators if she needed to. She was happy with that for now, as that was what had concerned her during their underwater mission—and Otto had offered to start teaching her to drive the Foot Crusher Cruisers soon, so she had that to look forward to.

_Guh. Stop spacing out._

The Super Robot had been in a tight spot, pinned down by strong spikes from a puffer-creature. Maybe they could have switched into vehicle mode. Would that have helped? Would that have even worked? She voiced her question meekly.

Sparx pointed at the screen. “Gibson, go back to the part where I’m talking.” Gibson rewound the tape slightly so that Sparx’s portion of the recording played. “See, Amber, Fist Rocket 3’s consoles are sparking and overloading? Those spikes bit into the power cables in the Super Robot’s arm and I didn’t have enough control of the Fist Rocket to switch it into vehicle mode.”

“That was a good thought, though, Amber,” Nova noted comfortingly. “It’s worked before that we can do that. When the Robot’s all tied up we can usually switch to vehicles and it will break us free. We did it on the planetoid mission a couple of weeks ago.”

“Oh. I see,” the girl said, pondering. If the team couldn’t finagle themselves out of that situation, maybe huge firepower was a good option after all.

“Hey, let’s not forget how this came out!” Chiro said, taking the remote from Antauri and pressing play once more.

The recording played all the way to the end, with the spiky eyeball destroyed thanks to the Lasatron, and Chiro bowed as the cover closed over the monitor.

Antauri cleared his throat. “Yes, well, my intention, Chiro, was to identify our weaknesses and thereby learn where we need improvement.”

Chiro shrugged. “I don’t know. As team leader, I’d say I was pretty good.” He grinned smugly, putting his hands on his hips, and Amber held back a snort. He was so proud of himself, and it’s not like it wasn’t warranted, he was just being ridiculous about it.

Antauri sighed and turned toward the rest of the team. “Very well. For those of us who were not so good, I have an assignment. I want each of you to come up with one new battle move.”

Amber raised her hand again and Antauri nodded in acknowledgement. “Antauri, I don’t know if I have a… a firm enough grasp on any of the powers I think I have… so I don’t know if I could come up with a new move. I don’t even know what I have. Healing, I guess, which isn’t exactly a battle move anyway.”

Antauri nodded. “That is true, but I still would like to give you an assignment. You may not yet have battle moves and attacks as we do, but I believe that there is still much untapped potential within you, possible abilities that you have not yet discovered.” He tapped the tips of his fingers together. “I would like you to take some time to meditate, to relax and embrace the energy of the Power Primate. The Power Primate is not only a physical power, but an emotional and spiritual one as well. Take the time to get to know it, and yourself, and perhaps a battle move or other ability will manifest.”

Amber was taken a bit aback by Antauri’s words but nodded slowly. _Yeah_. Maybe she would discover a new power. Chiro had many different abilities thanks to the Power Primate… maybe she did have more tricks up her sleeve that she didn’t know about yet. _Meditation_ … she nibbled her bottom lip. She’d done some meditation here and there over the years to combat her anxiety, and it hadn’t helped her too much… mostly because she just hated sitting still and being alone with her thoughts. It was just boring. But maybe now that she had the Power Primate… maybe it would be different. It was worth a try.

“All of us have learned from and taught each other and have had many years of practice. Creating a new battle move will help to keep our abilities sharp. Amber, your assignment is in essence the same, to try and discover or create a new ability.”

“What if I can’t come up with anything, Antauri?” Amber asked, folding her arms over her stomach worriedly. “What if I don’t have anything else? Healing’s so… so useless!”

“It’s not useless, Amber,” Chiro said, brows furrowing. “Yeah, okay, it’s not a battle move, but it’s really helpful outside of battle! You can heal injuries with your powers in a lot shorter time than it takes for them to heal on their own. That’s incredible!”

Antauri folded his arms behind his back. “I still would like you to try to meditate and relax and see what happens. And don’t worry if nothing is revealed immediately; the Power Primate is indeed very mysterious.”

“Well… okay,” Amber said, tapping a finger nervously to her other arm. “I’ll try that, and I’ll let you know if I figure anything out.”

“We don’t all have to meditate, do we?” Otto asked, brows furrowed. “I’m not so good at meditating.”

“He always falls asleep,” Nova whispered up to Amber, and the young lady cracked a smile.

The corner of Antauri’s mouth turned up. “No, for the rest of us, the assignment only pertains to battle moves with our powers and transformers.”

“Phew!” Otto wiped his forehead dramatically.

_Bee dee, bee dee, bee dee, bee dee—_

“Amber, shouldn’t you be on your way to work?” Gibson asked.

Amber clicked off her wristwatch. “Yes, that’s my alarm. I was hoping to leave soon, then, if that’s all right…”

“The lesson has concluded, Amber, you may go if you need,” Antauri said.

Amber looked at the time. “Ah, I have work in twenty minutes, and I have to walk down to the shopping district, is it all right if I go? I feel bad…”

“You’re here for the strategy lesson and the lesson’s over,” Sparx said, making a shooing motion with his hands. “Go to work, we’ll see you later.”

Amber took a deep breath and nodded. “All right.” She straightened up and put her bag on her shoulder. “Let me know if you need anything, and Chiro, I'll call you soon. Bye!”

The Monkeys waved at her as she took the orange tube downward and disappeared out of sight.

The weather still was not ideal, as it had been all day—cloudy and dark with what looked like the chance to start pouring any second… or foreshadowing something ill-meaning. _No, it’s fine. Stop overthinking this stuff. Just ‘cause that’s how it’s usually done on tv doesn’t mean real life weather acts like that._ Amber shook her head as she made her way into the shopping district. The sidewalks were crowded with Shuggazoom’s citizens going about their day, which was something she always treasured as normal in this city. She waved at the balloon guy and he waved back with a fistful of red balloons. Everything was okay.

So why did she have such a weird feeling? Why on Shuggazoom was she freaking out over the weather?

She made it to the back door of the candy store and pulled it open with a loud _kalunkk_! that echoed in the hall. “Amber?” came Mrs. Hanna’s voice from the kitchen.

“I’m here, Mrs. H, please tell me I’m still early,” Amber called back, shifting her bag on her shoulder and heading for the break room.

“Eight minutes early, right on time, dear, no worries,” Mrs. Hanna said, sticking her head out of the kitchen door as Amber walked past. “Go get your apron and I’ll clock you in in here.”

Amber dropped her bag off on the coat rack in the break room and took a pink apron from the clean apron rack. She elbowed both sets of doors open as she tied it behind her back. “You really should let me take mine home to wash them, I feel bad always leaving them here for you to take care of.”

Mrs. Hanna dropped a saucepan in the sink. “Amber, you always ask me that, and what do I always say?”

“They’re your aprons?” Amber retorted timidly.

“I am the store owner and the store manager. They’re my aprons and I will wash them.” The older lady put her hand on her hip, leaning on the counter. “Goodness gracious, darling, it’s like you _want_ more work to do.”

“I just… get them dirty so I want to wash them. That’s all.”

“Dear, I will take care of it. Honestly, we have this conversation once a week.” She shook her head, her gray curls bouncing. “You just can’t let it go.”

“No.” Amber said, grinning. “I’m too stubborn for that.”

“Just like your mother.” Mrs. Hanna smiled back and pushed her glasses up her nose. “Let’s get you clocked in. Those lifesavers won’t sort themselves.”

“Yes ma’am!”

* * * * * * * 

There had been three hours of perfectly normal customer interactions. Amber had sold a good amount of morning stock, Mrs. Hanna was whipping up her second batch of chocolate truffles, and Chiro hadn’t called her about any emergencies. So when the streets suddenly came alive with running, screaming, panicking people, Amber decided she wanted to know what was going on. Naturally, as a person with too much self-preservation, she opened the store’s front door to see what was happening. The only thing out of the ordinary she noticed was an enormous metal donut shaped… _building? Ship? It’s probably a ship, it couldn’t fly if it wasn’t a spaceship of some kind._ “What on Shuggazoom…?”

Something smooth and metal clamped around her neck before she could react, her vision completely blurring over as something dark and hot crackled around the corners of her mind. The metal was tight around her throat but she couldn’t cry out, couldn’t move her hands to get the horrible thing off of her, couldn’t stop her feet as she walked toward something she couldn’t see, as screeching monkey laughter echoed between her ears. _Serve Mandarin… serve Mandarin… serve Mandarin…_

After that, time seemed to slow. Seconds stretched to minutes, hours to days, it didn’t matter. She wandered the streets, seeking direction. To serve Mandarin, that was her only purpose.

She wanted to pull the collar off, she wanted to slam it down on the concrete, stomp on it, break it, grind it into powder… but she couldn’t. She couldn’t do anything but what Mandarin wanted her to do.

And he wanted her to serve him absolutely.

After another indeterminable stretch of time, a fuzzy thought pricked at her mind, strengthening into another one of her inexplicable visions. She could see… her brother. Chiro was there. He also was prisoner to one of the red collars, and she drew a little comfort from it. There was a monkey, a monkey she’d never seen before; an orange one, wrapped in bandages, with red eyes that glistened with malice. Could that be… could that be Mandarin? 

“The citizens of Shuggazoom tremble in our presence,” the orange monkey said. “We have the Power Primate. We are meant for greater purpose.”

Chiro’s eyes narrowed at the orange monkey’s declaration.

_So do I! But what does that have to do with greater purpose? Just because we have powers doesn’t mean we have to be cruel! I don’t want to have such a great purpose! I just want to… to… _

“Chiro!”

Green sparks tingled up her arms as the familiar warmth in her chest grew. But before it could form into anything that could help her, the collar reacted to her voice, and it shocked her, a short electrical zap that laced down her neck and through her body. _Hnngh! No! No, stop!_

Amber gritted her teeth and fought back against the short, hot, prickling sensation. She clenched her fists until her nails dug into her palms, and that tiny pain distracted her from the bigger pain coursing from her neck down into her spine and chest. _Leave… leave everyone alone!_ The Power Primate in her chest growled angrily, but when she tried to reach out for that power, it slipped out of her grasp. Without that power, she couldn’t make her body fight back against the control of the collar.

Fear made her knees, her legs, her whole body tremble. The zap faded away, leaving cold emptiness in its wake. She was helpless. Helpless and hopeless in the face of this orange monkey’s control.

“You are angry,” Mandarin observed, “but you know I speak the truth. Why be their servant… when you can rule them all?”

Chiro seemed to be taken aback. “Rule? Over Shuggazoom?”

“Or would you rather the Skeleton King did?” the orange monkey said, his voice low and threatening.

_Neither of those options are good. Chiro, help us, please! I… I never thought I’d have to ask you… but please… please help us…_

The vision faded out and Amber was left alone with what scattered, fractured, exhausted thoughts she could scrape together. _Chiro… please…_ She collapsed to her knees, weak and trembling in the face of overpowering fear.

* * * * * * * *

The Monkey Team smashed their way to the cockpit of their prison capsule, and Sparx leaped into the pilot’s seat. “We’re on our way, kid. We’ll be back home soon.” Otto set the course but Sparx was in full control of the ship. He gripped the joysticks and levers on the console, nudging them to that sweet spot that would coax as much power out of the engines as they could manage.

Chiro put his hand over his heart and let out a sigh. Antauri looked up at him. “Something troubling you?”

The boy let out a sharp laugh. “Besides everything? This is all so messed up I don’t even know where to begin. But I guess now isn’t the right time to fill me in on everything.”

“It was a lifetime ago, Chiro,” Antauri said. “There was much that happened, and I told you of much of it already...” He sighed. “In time, things will be addressed, but not now. Now we must put an end to Mandarin’s plan.”

Chiro nodded. “I figured as much. , and yeah, we’re gonna teach him a lesson.” The corner of his mouth quirked up but almost as soon as it had appeared, it disappeared again. “But there’s something else, too…” There had been a painful throbbing in the back of his head for what seemed like forever, since the very first instant Mandarin had appeared. It was getting stronger the closer he got to Shuggazoom, and he had a feeling he knew what it was. “Mandarin said the citizens of Shuggazoom were trembling before us,” he said slowly. “And I saw, he showed me on the screen in the HOOP, that each citizen… was wearing one of those red choke collars, the same one he stuck on all of you guys, and on me.” His hands clenched into fists. “I didn’t see her on the screen, but I know my sister is out there, and she’s in pain because of _him_.”

His hands shook and he gritted his teeth. He always worried about the citizens in general, but when his sister was affected, it was personal. He had had one of the HOOP’s collars around his own neck, and had sliced it off with Mandarin’s saber the instant he got the opening. But even after that, even now, there was a faint prickling around his neck that didn’t go away when he adjusted his scarf or ran his hand over the back of his neck. It was his bond with his sister, and it was telling him that she still had one of the HOOP’s collars around her own neck.

“Chiro, you cannot help her now,” Gibson told him gently.

“You wanna help her, you’ve gotta take out the monkey with the remote control,” Sparx said over his shoulder. “We’re gonna kick his sorry orange tail and put him back in jail where he belongs.”

“I agree,” Nova said, clunking her fists together. “We’re gonna make him sorry he messed with Shuggazoom, with us, and with you, Chiro.”

Chiro cracked a smile. “All right. Let’s do it. Hyperforce, go!”

* * * * * * *

“You defeated him, Chiro!” Antauri said gladly, smiling up at his young leader, proud of the lesson he’d learned at last.

“ _We_ defeated him,” Chiro said, grinning back. There was a resounding _ka-lick_ as every collar that had been holding a citizen captive unlatched and fell, and the relieved cheers that followed were music to the team’s ears.

The faint prickling around Chiro’s neck disappeared, and in its place came a sharp crackle of fear at the base of his skull. It was an emotion he knew wasn’t his own, and his heart beat faster. She was scared. She was so scared… it was an almost overwhelming feeling, and his heart twisted hard like a wrung-out towel. “Oh no! Antauri, my sister! My sister, I have to see if she’s okay!” He was off like a shot, cold fear and hot adrenaline surging in tandem through his veins, before the black monkey could get a word in.

Antauri sighed and wondered for the millionth time what he’d done in his life to deserve this child. “Nova, go back him up.”

“You got it, Antauri.” The yellow Monkey fired up her rocket pack and followed the white-clad boy through the thick of the dispersing crowd.

Chiro stopped for a moment on the edge of the sidewalk, scanning up and down the street for his sister. What had she been wearing today? A ruffled blouse with a… a… green skirt? Pink? He couldn’t remember. Oh, how was he supposed to find her in all these people? It was like a maze.

_A maze!_ He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, Antauri’s instructions filtering through his mind. **Embrace the Power Primate, and you will find that the right path is often the one you’re already on.** He placed a hand on his chest and concentrated, brows furrowing. _Find Amber. Find my sister._

The Power Primate in his chest grew warm and after a moment he felt a tug leading him toward the left. He followed the feeling through City Center to the edge of the Shopping District, like a magnet attracted to iron. The more he walked, the stronger the magnetic sensation became, until finally the crowd cleared and he caught sight of a trembling young woman sitting on the sidewalk.

He switched out of Hyper Mode and collapsed at her side. She was crying, tears running rivers down her cheeks; her lips were trembling as she tried to keep her voice from being heard. “Amber… Amber, sis, are you okay?”

She turned and looked at him, for the first time noticing him, and burst into full-fledged sobs.

“Sis, stop, stop, it’s okay now, it’s okay. He’s gone and he won’t be back. Well, he might, who knows, but not anytime soon because we kicked his tail. It’s okay, it’s okay…”

He didn’t know what to do when it was his big sister that was having the breakdown. Why on Shuggazoom was she crying so much? “Are you hurt? Did he hurt you? What happened?”

“Th-th-th-th-the c-c-c-oll-lar,” she managed to get out through her sobs. “I didn’t… didn’t know what was hap-pening…” She scrubbed at her face, taking huge gulping breaths and trying to stop crying. “The c-collar, I don’t know where it c-came fro-om but it snapped around my ne-eck and… and… and look…”

She tilted her chin away from him and Chiro caught sight of a thin red burn mark that ran the circumference of her throat. He clenched his teeth. If Mandarin thought that was how he should rule, then he would be glad to never let that happen. “Sis, look at me, look, I’ve got one too.” He took her hand and gently placed her fingers to the thin mark that just barely peeked above the collar of his white shirt. His Hyper Form scarf had protected him from the worst, and he suspected the one that the orange monkey had used on him was of a lesser severity than had been used on the citizens… but it still had left a mark. “It’s okay. It’s gonna be okay. He’s gone.” He put his hand on her shoulder. “He won’t hurt us anymore.”

Amber wiped her nose on her apron hem. “I can’t believe that any… anyone… could have the power to control us like that….”

“It was Mandarin,” came a light voice from above them. Nova landed on the sidewalk beside them, alighting softly. “Are you okay, Amber? What happened to your neck?”

“Those collars…” Chiro answered, pulling his own shirt collar away from his neck so she could see his matching burn.

Nova inhaled sharply and her eyes snapped between the two of them. She put her hand to her mouth. “I can’t believe they’d burn you like that… that’s awful…” She tilted her head in the girl’s direction. “Amber, Gibson should have something to treat those marks.”

Amber took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to calm herself down. Chiro slid his hand into hers and that did much to calm her heartrate. She looked up at the yellow Monkey. “No, it’s okay. We have burn cream at the store.” She poked at the collar that was still sitting on the sidewalk in front of her. “Sorry, Chiro, I didn’t mean to make you panic. I was just overwhelmed and… and scared… and… I was so afraid that I couldn’t think about anything else. These things are horrific.” She put her head in her hand. “I’m not… not used to feeling so… so afraid…”

“So you had a bit of a breakdown. It’s okay. You’re good now. Promise.”

She leaned her head on his shoulder and squeezed his hand. “Thank you.” There was a beat of silence. “I do want to know what actually happened and who Mandarin is, but I have to go back to work before Mrs. Hanna sends someone out to find out where I went.”

“Yeah, you should go back,” Nova said. “We can take it from here, right, Chiro?”

“Right.”

Amber slowly got up from the sidewalk as her brother pulled her to her feet. She wobbled for a moment and Chiro put his hand on her waist. “You sure you’re okay?”

Amber put her hand to her head. “It’s not every day you get… you get mind-controlled. I just need a second.” She ran her hand through her hair and looked down at the yellow Monkey who was looking back up at her with clear concern. “Nova… I don’t want to intrude, tell me if I’m out of line here, but I was wondering, I should be out of work before dinner, would it be all right if I came over later? I want to get filled in on what happened as soon as possible, if that’s okay.”

Nova nodded. “A dinner visit is probably fine. I’ll double check with Antauri but I doubt he’ll say no.” She folded her arms. “I’m glad you’re all right, Amber. Chiro was worried about you.”

Chiro’s ears turned pink. “Nova!”

Amber smiled softly and pecked a small kiss to his forehead. “All right, all right,” she laughed. “Go back, Chiro, go see the team. I’ll talk to you tonight. I promise.”

Chiro nodded in answer, looking at Nova who nodded in agreement. Amber raised her hand in goodbye and Chiro waved back as he dashed back the way he had come, toward the Park where the Super Robot still stood atop HBS Tower.

Amber sighed and made her way back through the thinning crowd toward the shopping district. Through some luck somehow, her mind-controlled wanderings had not led her far from her shop, and within some five minutes, she pushed the front door open. “Mrs. Hanna?” she called tentatively.

A gray head popped out from behind the counter. “Dear!” She rushed over as Amber closed the door behind her with a click. “Amber, you got caught in the middle of that awful scuffle, what happened?” She put her hand on Amber’s arm and looked at her earnestly. “Everyone was walking like zombies, and I didn’t know what to do, or what had happened, but I hid until I heard the all clear. You’re all right?”

Amber tilted her head. Mrs. Hanna did not have a red mark around her neck, which was a blessing. “I…” she sighed and pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead. “I went out on the sidewalk to see what was happening, which was dumb, _ugh_ , I don’t know why I did that, and… and something flew out from nowhere and snapped around my neck and took control of my mind.” She wasn’t sure how much about this new monkey she should tell Mrs. H, and honestly, she didn’t really know anything about him herself. She didn’t want to spread misinformation. “There was somebody evil in that red spaceship, he wanted to subjugate us and make us serve him, and those collars did that.”

“But the Hyperforce came through?” Mrs. Hanna said softly.

Amber nodded. “Yes. Chiro and the Monkey Team took him out and saved us.”

The motion of her chin moved the sweep of hair in front of her shoulder, revealing the mark on her throat. Mrs. Hanna gasped. “Darling, your neck! W-when you said collar, I didn’t know… didn’t think… oh, let me get you something for that!”

Amber winced a little. “Yes, please, if you have burn cream I’d like some.” Mrs. Hanna bustled off to the break room, motioning for the girl to follow. Amber obeyed, pushing open the Staff Only door and letting it swing closed behind her.

“Come with me, dear, you need to get that cooled and washed before we do anything else.” Mrs. Hanna swung the kitchen door open and Amber winced as it smacked against the cabinet behind it. She knew how to treat burns, goodness knew that she’d treated Chiro’s burns a time or dozen… but it was almost nice to have someone else doing the treating for her.

“You might want to put your hair up, so I can get at the back of your neck,” Mrs. Hanna said, wringing out a fresh cold cloth in the sink.

Amber dug in her skirt pocket for a couple of hair ties and after a minute had her long black locks tied up into a round bun. “Here, Mrs. H.”

“It appears to be a superficial burn, no broken skin, so this should not hurt. Stand still.”

Amber sighed as the cold cloth pressed against the hot mark. “It’s nice.”

Mrs. Hanna pressed the cloth all the way around Amber’s neck a few times until the skin felt a little cooler to the touch, and then cleaned it quickly with a soapy cloth. “There. Give me a moment to find the burn cream. Go sit in the break room and I’ll be right there.”

Amber washed her hands and dried them while Mrs. Hanna looked in the medicine chest. She made her way over to the break room and plopped down on the couch. She groaned, running her fingers over her throat. It was a burn and it tingled and throbbed like one, even after the cooling cloth. She looked at herself in the small mirror that hung on the opposite wall and watched herself sigh.

_Wait!_

She jolted up off the couch and crossed the room to the mirror. _My healing powers! I have healing powers!_ She pressed her fingers tight to the red mark. _It’s gonna be okay! I can heal it myself, then Mrs. H won’t have to bother with the gel._

She concentrated, letting her power well up in her hands and fingers as she had before. Her eyebrows furrowed. After a few moments, she opened her eyes again and moved her hands, grinning excitedly.

Her excitement came crashing down when she noticed the mark was still there, and it hurt just as much as it had before.

_I was so sure that would work! I did exactly the same thing as when I healed Chiro’s bruise that one time. I felt the… Power Primate warmth in my hands. It should have worked. Why didn’t it work?_

She pouted in the mirror and groaned again as she came to the inevitable conclusion that she just didn’t have the ability to heal herself. _How inconvenient is that? Rude._

Mrs. Hanna strode in the door in that moment with a bottle of burn gel and some gauze in her hand. “I found it, dear, we’re good to go. Go sit down and I’ll get this on you, since you can’t quite see it yourself.”

Amber sat down on the couch again and sighed.

Mrs. Hanna gently smeared a thin line of blue gel all the way around Amber’s throat and neck. The young woman hissed as the cooling gel stung against the angry red burn. “Gah, Mrs. H, that hurts…”

“It will. It’ll hurt for a while but it will heal quickly. You’re young, you’ll be all right.” She pulled out a strip of gauze and wound it very very gently around her neck to cover the gel, snipping the end and taping it down with a tiny piece of adhesive. “Is it choking you? I can adjust it.”

Amber looked at herself in the tiny mirror for a long, long moment, lost in thought, long enough for Mrs. Hanna to again ask after her wrappings. “Amber, answer me, please. Is it too tight?”

Amber shook her head. “No, Mrs. H, it’s fine, it just looks… I don’t know. It just…” she touched the gauze gingerly with a fingertip, “it reminds me of what happened, of feeling helpless and paralyzed with fear.” She sighed. “I’ll be glad when it’s healed.”

“It’ll be all right, Amber,” Mrs. Hanna said comfortingly. “Other than that, do you feel all right? I’m sure the experience was quite scary for you…”

Well, it had been that, certainly, and hopefully with time, the memories would fade away into obscurity. Chiro had saved her, breaking the darkness holding her mind captive. Her mind was her own once again, and she was very thankful for that. “It was… not good, but I’m all right, Mrs. H.” She looked up at the woman. “Thank you.”

“Answer me honestly, then, Amber, as I know you will—do you feel well enough to put in another couple of hours’ worth of work?”

Amber took a deep breath and nodded. “I should finish my shift out.”

“Thank you, dear, you know I really appreciate that.” The bell by the register rang shrilly and both ladies jumped at the sound. “Seems like someone needs some comfort sugar right now,” Mrs. Hanna chuckled. “Go see what they need, I will clock you back in, and we’ll close early. We’ve all been through a lot today, and we need some rest.”

Amber stood up and exchanged her ruined apron for a clean one. “Yes, Mrs. H. You got it.”

*

_Shuggazoom Sweets’_ door locked shut at precisely 7:09. Mrs. Hanna tugged at the silver handle, making sure the alarms were armed. “Would you like me to walk you home, Amber?”

Amber shoved her hands in her pockets. Usually she would say no to this query, as it was much faster getting straight home without the slower steps of the older woman keeping her. But given all that had happened today, she’d be thankful for the company. “If that’s all right, Mrs. H, I would love that.”

Their talk was light as the two ladies walked along the gently lit streets of the residential district. Mrs. Hanna complained about the fall season and how was she supposed to incorporate pumpkin spice into her stock and Amber laughed and told her to please not make pumpkin spice candy, that was a crime against nature. Mrs. Hanna reminded her that she still sold chocolate and maybe she could do something with that, and Amber shook her head, laughing still.

Mrs. Hanna walked Amber to her doorstep and Amber fished her keys out of her bag. “Thank you, Mrs. H. It really means a lot that you’d walk with me.”

“I know there probably wouldn’t be another attack on the heels of the one that just happened, but given your experience, I thought you wouldn’t want to be alone.”

“Thank you.” She turned the key in the lock and it clicked. “Be safe going home, Mrs. H. Please.”

“We are safe, dear,” Mrs. H said, smiling. “The Hyperforce is watching after us.”

And that was the truest of all truths. “Yes.” Amber smiled back. “I know.”

Mrs. Hanna raised a hand in farewell as she made her way back down the little stone walkway. “I will see you on Saturday, then?”

“I’ll be there first thing in the morning to help you open.”

“See you then, dear. Good night.”

“Good night!” Amber called as she slipped through her door and closed it behind her.

Ohhh dear, she was unquestionably late to get to the Robot.

She dropped her bag by the door and dashed up the stairs to her room. _Gotta get changed, gotta get changed—wait_. She didn’t really need to get fully changed, did she? And it would save time if she didn’t change everything. The Monkeys didn’t care that much if she visited in her work clothes, she was pretty sure. She’d just been there earlier and she’d been in her work clothes then! She opted to only change her skirt into jeans and discarded her flats in favor of socks and sneakers.

She tapped the button on her necklace as she made her way back downstairs. “Amber to Hyperforce, please come in…”

“Hi, Amber!” Otto’s voice came through cheerfully. The girl’s nerves soothed a little in the sound of the green Monkey’s glad voice. “You okay?”

“Amber, you are still coming?” Gibson queried. “Nova informed us that you would arrive at dinnertime. It has been quite a while since then and yet you did not arrive.”

“I’m so sorry.” Amber winced. “I wasn’t expecting Mrs. Hanna to put me back to work after I got back to the shop, and I couldn’t leave her there by herself, especially after what happened. I was gonna run right to the Robot after we closed but she insisted on walking me home and I couldn’t tell her no to that either…”

“Where are you right now?” Nova asked.

Amber looked in the foyer mirror. Stars, her hair was a mess. She ran a hand through it to smooth down the wisps. “At home still. I changed a little and I was going to come right over.”

“I hope you didn’t change too much,” Sparx cracked.

Amber groaned and put her hand on the table. “Sparx, no…”

There was some screeching laughter, probably from Sparx, maybe some Otto mixed in there too. It took a second for the hysterics to cease. “Okay, okay. I’ll be right there. Give me… fifteen minutes.”

“We will be expecting you soon, then,” came Antauri’s voice.

“Yes, thank you. Amber out.”

Amber made herself a sandwich as fast as she could. She didn’t want them to feel obligated to feed her, since they themselves had apparently already eaten a long time ago. The poor Monkeys already had one hungry growing teen to feed, and she didn’t want to make it two.

She shoved her meal in her bag and put it back on her shoulder and was out the door like a shot. She had the shortest way to the Super Robot pretty much memorized at this point, but no matter which shortcuts she took, it was not a short walk.

She opened the door in the Robot’s foot as she had done before and took the little green elevator to the main floor. Everyone was waiting for her. “Amber!” Otto shouted in greeting.

“Hi, everyone. I’m so so sorry, again, for being late…”

Sparx appeared at her side. “It’s okay. We’re mostly glad you’re all right because boy did Mandarin cross the line this time.”

“Ooh, look at your neck, what happened?” Otto asked, hopping out of his chair and walking up to her, eyes wide. “Was it the same thing that happened to Chiro?”

Amber’s mouth twisted. “Yeah, that… that collar, it shocked me, and I think the shock burned my skin.”

“I’m glad you got a bandage for it,” Nova said, smiling up at her.

There was a _wshoosh_ to her right and Chiro stepped out of his orange tube. “Glad you could make it, sis.”

“I mean, I’m not here for a lesson or even to just hang out, I know you guys are way too busy for that…” She tapped the tip of her shoe on the floor anxiously. “If it’s none of my business, please tell me, I don’t want to waste your time, but I was hoping that maybe you could fill me in a bit on what happened this afternoon? Who was that orange monkey? And how did he have the power to… control my mind like he did?” She waved her hands worriedly and clasped them together in a prayer. “I know you said I’m part of the team, sort of, but sometimes I feel that these things are just Hyperforce business—”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, Amber,” Chiro said, waving his arms. “Stop.”

“Amber… what exactly is your concern?” Antauri asked slowly, looking up at her with a flat, neutral expression.

The girl let out a heavy sigh. “I… I feel like I invited myself over. And I shouldn’t do that, I should never do that, I don’t belong here with the Hyperforce, despite… despite what you said before…”

“Okay, look, Amber,” Sparx said, raising a brow at her. “It’s like this, you’re basically part-time, instead of full-time like the rest of us.” He gestured to all the other Robot Monkeys and to Chiro.

“You got your job, right?” Otto asked. “You gotta work at your job, and you’ve got a house to take care of, and you gotta take care of yourself too, right?”

“You’re not less of an employee, you just have a few less responsibilities,” Gibson explained.

“Besides,” Nova said, “You haven’t really gotten the chance to do things with us yet. You’ve only gone on one mission, you haven’t started training yet. You’re fine.”

“You have just as much right as the rest of us to know what happened today,” Antauri said. “You were affected by Mandarin’s actions, and we do not know if and when he may come back to cause more trouble. We must all be ready when that time comes,” he smiled at her, “and that includes you.”

Amber sighed. “All right.” She sat down on the floor in between the blue chair and the green one. “Tell me what happened.”

Chiro began by telling her about what had happened after Mandarin had revealed himself to them—how the orange Monkey had taken all of them captive and how Chiro had managed to escape and rescue the rest of the team. He told how they all fought with Mandarin together, and how the orange Monkey had escaped. He explained how the collars were part of the HOOP’s prisoner control system, and how Otto had permanently deactivated the system.

Amber nibbled on the corner of her sandwich and sighed. “Well, I’m glad that those collars weren’t any of Mandarin’s specific powers… so if he ever comes back, he couldn’t use them again.”

Otto shook his head. “Nope. The HOOP’s empty now that Mandarin got out, so it’s kinda just…” He motioned with his hand. “…there. I think I can take it apart and use it for scrap.”

“Well, we kind of built it in the first place,” Nova sighed. “So it makes sense that now we’ve gotta figure out what to do with it.”

“All that time…” Gibson murmured. “…all that time, and we never would have thought that he would ever escape.”

“Unfortunately, it was not to be,” Antauri said with a hint of regret.

“Wait. Wait, wait, wait.” Amber waved her hands. “You knew Mandarin before? You imprisoned him? So he wasn’t just… another random bad guy sent by Skeleton King, like Scrapperton or Q?”

“We did know him, yeah,” Sparx sighed, uncharacteristically somber.

More pieces clicked together in Amber’s head. “I… I had a vision… of him, of Mandarin and Chiro, while I was under the collar’s control,” she said. “They were talking, like Chiro said. I saw Mandarin, I saw him in my mind’s eye, and he looked… like he maybe could have once been a Robot Monkey?” She looked up at Antauri. “What… who was he, exactly?”

Antauri closed his eyes and folded his hands together tightly. “There were always six of us. When we protected Shuggazoom many years ago, Mandarin was our leader. He led us with strength and wisdom and efficiency. He taught us much, and we were a good team.” The black Monkey opened his eyes and looked at the floor. “I still… berate myself that I did not see his betrayal coming, did not see the signs and seek to intervene before it was too late… I contented myself with being second in command, with allowing Mandarin to do what he deemed necessary for the good of the team. I did not interfere unless it was out of control…” he looked at Nova out of the corner of his eye and her brow furrowed and her fists clenched. “Regardless, he let it be known to us that he was going to rule Shuggazoom, as he now had the technology to do so, thanks to us.” Otto grimaced and shook his head. “And we could not let that happen. We are to protect Shuggazoom, not rule. We could not change his mind, and we rose up against him and stripped him of his weapons and locked him away within his own prison, within the sleep of stasis for all eternity.”

“That didn’t quite work out like you wanted,” Chiro noted sheepishly, rubbing his head. “That’s on me.”

Amber raised an eyebrow. “Chiro, you… you let him out? Did you know about all this?”

Chiro shook his head fervently. “No! I had no idea anything about him! I didn’t even know the Hyperforce had another leader before me! I mean, I should have figured, all that stuff we read in the history books said that the Hyperforce was a team. I should’ve thought that team had a leader. Six parts of the Super Robot, six Robot Monkeys.” He groaned. “I didn’t think about it, and I never asked.”

“How’d you wake him up, then?”

“I… I don’t know, really. Actually, I don’t know if it was even my fault. I was practicing my Monkey Combat moves in my room, and I kicked off the wall and a little panel opened up. It was a storage space, and it had Mandarin’s helmet and one of his glove weapons. I took them out and put them on because they were so cool, and I thought it would be neat to look like a Robot Monkey!”

“You didn’t know they had belonged to Mandarin,” Nova said, sighing.

“And then maybe not even a half an hour after that, the HOOP showed up,” Chiro said. “Maybe it was a coincidence, maybe it was because I activated Mandarin’s stuff. I don’t know.”

“Well, even if it was because of Mandarin’s equipment, it was an accident, and we don’t hold it against you, Chiro,” Antauri said. “It is just as well that you have met him, so that you can learn from our past, and not repeat our mistakes in the future.”

Chiro nodded thoughtfully.

Amber nodded too. It was a lot of information, and she sensed that Antauri had glossed over quite a few details, but it truly wasn’t any of her business. She now knew who Mandarin was, who he had been, what he had done, and how he had controlled the citizens of Shuggazoom. That was all she wanted to know. It was hard to believe that there had once been a sixth monkey… that Chiro’s room, Chiro’s seat in the Torso Tank, everything that Chiro had and was here within the Monkey Team had once belonged to someone else. It was a little unsettling.

“Do you think… do you think he’s going to come back, Antauri?” the girl asked in a hushed tone.

“He’s got a grudge against us now,” Sparx said, folding his arms behind his head. “He never really liked us, but now he _really_ hates us.”

“I don’t think it was that he didn’t like us,” Gibson ventured, “He just had a very… unconventional way of showing that he appreciated us.”

Sparx snorted and looked up at the ceiling. “Sure. Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

“Enough,” Antauri said. “Dwelling on the past will not do us any good. We should focus on the present, and on our future.”

Chiro grinned and pointed his thumb at himself. “Yeah, with me as your slightly-less-unhinged leader.”

Amber ruffled his hair. “I don’t know. You still do go a little bit crazy when it comes to new Sun Riders merch.”

Chiro groaned and pried her hand away from his head with a little more force than strictly necessary. “That’s a cheap shot.”

Amber pointed at him and grinned. “You can’t deny it though.”

Chiro raised both his arms. “I never said I was gonna.”

The Monkeys all laughed at that. It was good for them to have a moment of mirth, a moment for them to not worry about the sins of the past. What had been done was done, and it could not be undone, no matter how much it was wished for. Their future ahead was bright, and all they could hope for was to keep looking forward, toward the next sunrise, toward the dawn of days ahead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Amber really kinda got thrown through the wringer this chapter! She experiences the scary control collars (which I really tried hard to figure out what that would be like, so hopefully did it justice!) and just also has a lot of anxiety trying to navigate the new experience of helping the team and getting used to the Monkeys and feeling comfortable around them. She's anxious about her powers, worried that she'd be useless to help the team (which is a big turnaround from where she was in chapter 2 where she didn't want to be anywhere near the fighting!) and this little mini-arc about learning a new power will continue into the next chapter as well. 
> 
> Another one of the big lessons I want Amber to learn, which goes along with her mini-character-arc about her powers, is that she needs to learn to let herself be helped by the team. In this chapter, she refuses Nova's offer for medical aid, and she's also very anxious about being perceived as annoying or inconveniencing the team by asking for information about Mandarin. This will also come to a head in the next chapter, so look forward to that!
> 
> The next chapter will be S1E7, _Pit of Doom!_
> 
> If you'd like, feel free to come say hi over on my tumblr [ sweetcircuits](https://sweetcircuits.tumblr.com) if you have any questions about this story or about Amber!


	7. in which Amber takes an elevator ride to her doom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been maybe four weeks since I've updated? I keep trying for these updates to be closer together but it hasn't happened yet XD. It's okay, I promise this chapter is going to be worth the wait! I have to admit, this is one of my favorite chapters I've written of this fic so far, and I hope you'll enjoy the shenanigans as much as I liked writing them. In chapter 7, there is... Otto getting his chance to shine and teach, some more great Amber-Chiro sibling bonding/shenanigans, some lessons learned (and isn't there an elevator monster on the loose, too? somebody has to do something about that.)
> 
> This chapter is based on S1E7, _Pit of Doom_!

“Please? Please, please, please?” Chiro begged, hands clasped together. “It’s Merchant’s Day! Please let me have half a day off so I can go shopping with my sister. Please?”

“I gather this ‘Merchant’s Day’ is something very important to the two of you, then?” Gibson asked, raising a brow.

Chiro grinned. “Merchant’s Day is the third Saturday in October. Tomorrow! It’s basically like a fair, kinda? but it’s just mostly shops and booths instead of games and rides. The holiday… well okay, it’s an unofficial holiday… it’s just like, a day dedicated to celebrating all Shuggazoom’s artists and vendors! They set up booths all along the street in the Shopping District, with all kinds of neat things. And the big stores, like the department store, they all have huge sales, too! Amber and I go every year. It’s super fun, I got a couple of cool toys last year.”

“That’s so cool, Chiro!” Otto gushed. “I’ve never heard of anything like that before!”

“And you and your sister go to this thing every year?” Sparx asked.

“Yeah! When I was littler, I thought it was really boring but now I really like seeing all the cool stuff that everybody’s been working on. And it is kind of a tradition now that we go shopping together on Merchant’s Day, I guess.”

Antauri closed his eyes thoughtfully. “A half a day off?”

Chiro let out a long breath. “It’s our responsibility to protect the city. I want to be here to help if something happens! Like that time that I snuck off to hang out with Jinmay, I left you guys alone and there was a Formless attack. I don’t want that to happen again… but I do really want to have some time with my sister…”

“Well, we might be able to compromise, Chiro,” Gibson said, tapping his fingers on his arm. “You are correct, if there is an attack, we will need your help. However, if there are none…” He shared a glance with Antauri.

“If this really is some big holiday, we gotta be even more careful than usual,” Nova reminded them. “All those booths with stuff that people worked hard on, we have to really be on top of checking for monsters so nothing gets ruined.”

“You’re right, Nova!” Otto said, snapping his fingers. “I’ll tune up the radar tonight so it’ll be in great shape for tomorrow.” He put his hand on his chest. “If there’s a Formless anywhere in the city, we’ll know about it right away!”

Antauri opened his eyes. “All right, Chiro. Here is my proposition. You have lessons with Gibson and me tomorrow, I believe.”

“Correct,” Gibson said, pulling up the team schedule.

“If you can finish all your lessons to our satisfaction, and your morning chores, by the time your sister is finished with her lesson with Otto, you may have your half a day off.”

Chiro’s eyes widened and a smile split across his face. “Thank you, Antauri!”

Antauri held up a hand. “However, you are not free of _all_ your Hyperforce responsibilities. If there is an emergency or a threat, we will need you to come help us immediately. You referenced the Jinmay incident, and we forgave you for that. I am glad that you want to do better, and I am being lenient with you in this situation because of that.”

Chiro nodded vigorously. “I will come help if the team needs me, I promise. That’s fine, Antauri. Thank you!”

“Oh, so Amber’s Foot Crusher lesson is tomorrow,” Sparx said, nodding. “I almost forgot about that.”

Otto grinned widely. “It’s gonna be fun!”

“That reminds me, I have to print out that spec sheet she needs…” Nova said, pulling up the document on the holographic screen in her pod-chair.

“I think it’s awesome that you guys are going to actually teach her how to drive the Super Robot!” Chiro said.

“Well, if you recall, she did ask us to teach her about the Robot,” Gibson said, the corner of his mouth turning up. “And we did figure that the best way to do that would be to teach her to pilot it, to whatever degree she can.”

“All right team, meeting dismissed,” Antauri said. “Back to your duties.”

Everyone stood up and stretched and dissipated back to their activities. Chiro smiled to himself. Tomorrow promised to be fun and exciting, and he was looking forward to it.

* * * * * * * *

_~the next morning~_

Amber stepped out of the tube onto the main floor and looked around. Otto was sitting in his pod-chair, and he was the only Monkey to be seen. “Hey, Otto!”

Otto waved. “Hi, Amber! One second, lemme finish this really quick.”

“Sis!”

The young woman turned her head to see her brother barreling towards her. “Amber! I’m so glad to see you, you excited?”

Amber grinned and nodded. “Yup, I sure am! I love Merchant’s Day, it’s one of my favorite holidays.”

“You’re here for your Foot Crusher lesson with Otto, right? We talked about it yesterday.”

“Yeah, driving the Foot Crusher…” Amber rubbed her temple with her index finger. 

“I’m happy that Otto’s going to teach you, it’s really neat that you’re gonna get the chance to learn to drive the Robot! I wasn’t planning on it originally, but the Monkeys all thought it was a good idea.”

“Well, no promises that I’ll be any good, but it’ll be interesting for sure.” Amber slid her bag off her shoulder and dropped it on Chiro’s orange seat. “Speaking of Merchant’s Day, Antauri is still letting you have some time off, right?”

The corner of Chiro’s mouth turned up. “Well, he hasn’t changed his mind, if that’s what you’re asking. If I finish my lessons with him and Gibson and my chores, then I can have the afternoon off.”

“ _Ah hem._ Speaking of your lessons…” came an amused voice.

Chiro winced and turned around, and Gibson was standing at the lab door with a datapad in his hand. “We really should go over these formulas a few more times, just to make sure that you know them.”

Chiro looked up at his sister pleadingly and she hid a smile behind her hand. “Chiro, this is your new equivalent for school. Math didn’t get any less important just ‘cause you’re not in a classroom with fourteen other kids. You need to finish whatever lessons Gibson has for you, and I’ll see you later, okay?”

The boy sighed. “Yeah, I know. Later, then.” He trooped back over to the lab, Gibson gave him the datapad, and the door hissed closed behind the two of them.

Otto stood up, stretched, and put whatever he’d been working on away. He smiled excitedly at Amber and waved his hands. “You ready, Amber?”

Amber let out a tense breath and smiled at him. He was so happy about doing this, that she couldn’t help but feel at least a little better. “Yeah. I think. But I need that blank dashboard spec sheet so I can write down what all the buttons do?”

Just as the words left her mouth, a tube to her left hissed. “I’ve got it, Amber! Sorry, here you go!” Nova stepped out of her yellow tube and handed the young lady a rolled-up sheet of gray paper. “It’s blank like you needed, so you can label everything on your own.” She smiled up at her. “You ready to tackle driving the Super Robot?”

Amber sighed and returned the smile. “I think so. Ready as I’m gonna be, anyway.”

“Let’s go, then!” Otto pumped his fist. “To the Foot Crusher!”

Amber laughed and followed him over to the green tube. Nova waved to them as they disappeared out of sight. As the tube hissed downward toward Otto’s vehicle, he continued to chatter excitedly. “This is so awesome, Amber, I never got to teach anyone to drive before!”

“No?” she asked. “Not even Chiro?”

Otto shook his head. “When Chiro first joined the team, Sparx mostly taught him how to drive the Torso Tank. Nova helped him a little bit, too, to drive in vehicle mode ‘cause it’s a ground vehicle. I didn’t get to teach him, but it’s okay, I was still tryin’ to get his room and all his other stuff set up right. And then he just picked it up so quick that I never got the chance to show him any of my cool moves.” The elevator let them off in Foot Crusher Cruiser 5’s green cockpit. “Ahh, I’m so excited! This is gonna be so fun.” He hopped into his seat and the seatbelts fastened automatically.

Amber knelt down next to the big green chair and looked at all the buttons on the console. Stars above, there were a lot of them. She let out a shaky breath and hoped Otto wouldn’t notice, or at least not think less of her for being nervous.

The green Monkey looked over at her and noticed her furrowed eyebrows immediately. “Do you know how to drive a hovercar already? That helps, I think.”

Amber inhaled and nodded. “Yeah. I did learn to drive a regular car, and I have a driver’s license. I don’t have my own car,” she waved her hand dismissively, “things happened, and I don’t drive a lot, but I do know how.”

“What about a pilot’s license? Can you fly?”

“No, I don’t have one of those, never thought I’d need it…”

Otto grinned at her. “Well, don’t worry. You don’t need to worry ‘bout flying right now. You’re starting with your wheels firmly on the ground and you’ll work your way up from there.”

“Am I learning to fly?” Amber asked, her heart beating faster. “I’m learning Fist Rockets?”

Otto turned and put his arm on the armrest of his seat. “Okay, we did all kinda talk about this. Since you don’t have a designated vehicle, like all the rest of us, we’re just gonna teach you everything, so you can help fill in wherever we need you! If you’re okay with that.”

“Oh.” Amber swallowed, throat dry.

“We’re basically going from ground up,” Otto said, opening a basic flat image of the Super Robot on his forward monitor. “The Foot Crushers are easiest to start with ‘cause they’re most like cars. They’re like big jeeps, basically! They’re fun to drive, you’ll like it! And after you get Foot Crushers down you get to move on to the Torso Tank, and Sparx and Chiro’ll help you out with that. And after that it’s off to Fist Rockets with Sparx and lastly Brain Scrambler with Antauri!” He beamed at her. “It’s gonna be great!”

Amber’s head spun and she dug her fingers into Otto’s chair to keep herself steady. To have to learn to drive all the Super Robot’s parts… and to learn both Vehicle Mode and Machinder Mode… she was going to be stretched so thin, how could she do any of them well? She understood now why each Monkey, each team member, had only one vehicle they were assigned to, to know inside and out, to be able to control well. “Otto, I… I don’t think I could do all four different types of vehicles. They’re all so different, I… I don’t think I’m going to do a good job.” Her heart pounded hard in her chest. She didn’t want any of the other Monkeys or Chiro to get hurt because she wasn’t piloting correctly. Maybe this was a bad idea.

Otto’s brow pinched as he leaned over her and patted her awkwardly on the head. “Don’t worry, Amber. The worst thing that could happen is that you can’t do it. We’re not gonna make you do it if you’re having a really tough time. We’re not _heartless_.” He smiled. “We just wanna help you out, ‘cause you asked us to, remember?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I did.” _You need to teach me at least basic functions of this machine, just in case something happens!_ “It’s just a lot to… try and wrap my head around.”

“Well, here. Right now we’re just gonna do the Foot Crushers. That’s all you gotta worry about, one thing at a time. It’s like when I’m working on a project. You start with a pile of metal, then cut them to the right shapes, then fit two pieces together, then solder them. Then the next piece and the next one. After a couple hours’ wortha work, you’ve got a pretty awesome laser cannon.” He gave her a thumbs up. “We’ll do it step by step. You got this.”

Amber took a deep breath and nodded, smiling at the green Monkey. “Yeah. Okay.”

“You ready for me to go over the buttons and stuff?” Otto asked. “You got your diagram?”

She held up the unlabeled dashboard spec. “Yup.”

“Okay.” The green Monkey sat up straight in his chair and put his feet on the pedals. “Okay, these pedals are gas and brake, just like a regular car. Two joysticks, left and right. Think of those like the steering wheel. You pull ‘em left to turn left and right to turn right…”

They worked their way slowly through all the buttons (there were a lot!) but Otto went slow enough for Amber to scribble down as many notes as she needed. He was right, it was a bit like a car—but since it was a car that occasionally drove in three dimensions, it was a little tricky. He showed her how to open the front window in order to be able to extend his saws through to the outside, even though she wouldn’t be able to use that function herself. There were multiple settings for the cannons, from lasers to cluster bombs to missiles to the sealant that they used to fix the Transit Tunnels when they’d flooded.

And then Amber tried to sit in Otto’s chair to see how everything looked from the pilot’s vantage point—and realized the seat was way, way too low to the ground. She banged both her knees on the console one after the other and groaned.

“Ah, sorry, Amber!” Otto yelped, digging around the base of the chair for the adjustment levers. “I forgot! We had to do this for Chiro in the Torso Tank since he’s a lot taller than Mandarin was but I forgot that you were gonna need the chair fixed too.” He snapped something into place and pulled a lever and the chair and console rose up to a comfortable height. “There. Better?”

Amber sat up straight and held her arms out. The console and joysticks were within perfect reach. “Yes, so much better!”

They ran over all the buttons and levers one more time, with Otto quizzing her every once in a while on the how’s of actually driving, firing the weapons, using the radar, and switching from Machinder Mode to Vehicle Mode.

“I think you’re doing pretty awesome, Amber!” Otto said cheerily after a while. “We can’t practice much more here, though, we have to keep the Super Robot in standby mode just in case we need to pilot it for an emergency.”

“Well, okay, that makes sense…” Amber ventured, “but I’m not ready to drive this thing for real yet, I didn’t even actually move it or use the weapons!”

Otto waved his hands to ward off her worried questions. “It’s okay! We can’t practice here, but we can use the simulator! Chiro uses it all the time with Antauri for Power Primate exercises, but we use it for driving practice too.”

 _Oh, a simulator? That’s super cool, actually! And it is a really good way to practice without causing actual damage. But wait, though…_ “Hey, Otto? Chiro said he had lessons with Antauri this morning? Isn’t he already using the simulator for Power Primate stuff?”

Otto tapped his chin. “Could be! But Antauri doesn’t use the simulator for _all_ Chiro’s lessons, and Chiro was workin’ with Gibson when we went down, so he might not even be using it? We’ll go check! Come on!” He leaped over to the little space behind his chair and motioned for the young woman to follow. The two of them took the tube up to the training floor, and it was deserted.

“Oooh, lucky for us!” Otto cheered. “Awesome! Let me find the training helmet.” He opened one of the wall panels and there were shelves behind it. “It’s here somewhere…”

There was a few moments of silence save the clanking of Otto digging through the shelves and boxes. “So you’re going shopping with Chiro this afternoon? He said it was some kind of shopping holiday today?”

“Yeah,” Amber replied, “It’s Merchant’s Day, and it’s our tradition to go shopping and pick up a couple of things we need, since the sales are so good, and a couple of fun things too, while we’re at it!”

“Found it!” Otto whooped, turning around with the helmet in his hand. “Chiro musta shoved it in the back when he got done with it.” He grinned at the young woman. “Well, we’ll be done with this pretty soon so you can go have fun with Chiro! Let’s try a couple of routes and we’ll see how long that takes, okay?”

Amber gingerly settled the gray metal helmet over her head while Otto hooked up the correct cable. “Begin driver training simulation,” a cool female voice echoed in the training room.

After a moment she opened her eyes to find herself once again in Foot Crusher Cruiser 5’s cockpit. She shook her hands and feet and all her body parts seemed to be working. “Oooooh. This is so cool, Otto!” There was a beat of silence. “Otto?”

The green Monkey materialized at her side. “I’m here! Had to hook myself in too!”

“Otto, this is awesome!” She reached over and patted him on the head and he grinned. His helmet felt warm and smooth under her fingertips. “I can’t wait to try it out!”

“Well, let’s get to it! Courses 1 through 3, Amber! Take a deep breath.” He waited for her to do so, then went on. “Follow your hunches. Be smart, remember the training, but follow your gut. And remember, you’re not doin’ this by yourself. The team’s gonna be with you. We got your back.”

Amber got off to a rocky start on the first course, but did better on the second one, and on the third one was able to cruise down a straightaway while aiming and firing the cannons. That course ended with a _crunch_ as Amber managed to drift the Foot Crusher around a corner and slam into the side of a building.

“Sorry, Otto,” she groaned. Her heart was beating out of her chest, adrenaline surging in her limbs. Driving something so much taller and larger than she was used to… honestly scared her a little. The basics weren’t incredibly hard but the weapons and the energy dampers and thrusters and other more complicated settings were difficult for her to use efficiently. “I’m so sorry, Otto, I thought I was doing pretty okay but that corner came up and…”

“Amber, you’re fine,” Otto soothed. “You did good. Really good, actually.”

She looked over at him, brows pinched.

“Honest, Amber, you did better than I thought you’d do. And it’s your first time doin’ the simulator! We’ll keep workin’ on it whenever you have time to come try it again. I wasn’t expecting you to learn it all in one day!”

Amber sighed. That was true.

“I think we’re good for now. I’ll get us out of here, hang on one second.”

Amber closed her eyes and after a moment heard a soft power-down noise. She opened her eyes to the soft silvery-blue of the training room, with the green Monkey lifting the gray helmet off her head. “End driver training simulation,” the computer said. Amber took a deep breath and let it out again, lacing her fingers together and trying to calm her still racing heartbeat.

“You okay?” came Otto’s soft question.

She looked up at the green Monkey. “Yeah… it’s just… it’s just a big vehicle. I’ve never driven anything like it before. And I don’t… I don’t want to hurt anyone if I can’t do it right, you know? I don’t want to crash into Nova or Chiro… or, or even if it’s still in Machinder Mode, I don’t want to be trouble for Nova if I can’t do my share for the Foot Thrusters…”

Otto put his hand on his hip. “Practice. Just practice. That’s all you gotta do. None of us are gonna make you go for the real thing unless both of us think you’re ready. Promise. And we’re gonna be there with you, you won’t ever be piloting by yourself.”

Amber let out a soft sigh. “All right. And Otto?” She smiled at him. “Thank you so much for teaching me. You’re a really good teacher.”

Otto blushed deep green. “Aw, you really think so?”

“I really do.”

Otto grinned brightly at her and she smiled back.

In that moment Otto’s antennae beeped and he opened them. “Antauri to Otto. Respond.”

“Hi, Antauri! What’s up?”

“Chiro has just completed his lesson with me. How are you progressing with Amber’s lessons?”

“She just finished ‘em, actually. She did really good, just needs a lot more practice, that’s all.”

“That is good to hear. Have her come down to the main room, and Chiro should be ready there.”

“Gotcha. Thanks, Antauri! Otto out.” He closed his antennae and looked at the young woman. “Well, you heard Antauri! Chiro’s done if you want to meet him downstairs.”

Amber stood up and stretched, then made her way with Otto over to the green tube which they took back downstairs. Chiro met her on the main floor, a bright grin covering his face. “Ready?” he asked, eyes shining as bright as his smile.

Amber snorted and ruffled his hair. “Yeah. After all that driving, I think it’ll be nice to walk on my own two feet for a while. Let’s go shopping.”

Chiro pumped his fist. “Yes!”

“Chiro, be back by 8 o’clock, all right?” Antauri said, floating above his pod-chair. “And should an emergency arise, we will need your help. Otherwise, we will leave you in the care of your sister for the rest of the day.”

“I’ll take good care of him,” Amber said, smirking at the thought. She’d been in charge of Chiro first, and for a longer time. The idea of her ‘borrowing’ her brother to return him at the end of the day was pretty funny, actually.

“Here’s your bag, sis,” Chiro said, handing her the purse. “You left it on my seat.”

“Oh, I was going to ask you to grab it. Thanks.” She slipped it over her shoulder.

“Have fun!” Nova said, waving. “We’ll keep an eye on everything, don’t worry.”

“Be careful, Chiro,” Gibson warned.

“Buy me something awesome!” Sparx called over his shoulder.

“We’ll see!” Chiro said, waving as the tube hissed down to Foot Crusher Cruiser 5.

Amber stepped out into the fresh air and the early afternoon sun and took a deep breath. Chiro slid his hand into hers and she grinned at him.

The streets were packed with Shuggazoomians coming and going. Merchant’s Day was always a popular event; everybody was out and about on Shuggazoom’s streets today. The siblings wound their way through the thick of the crowd and headed downtown to the Shopping District.

Their first stop was the comic store. Chiro smushed his face against the glass to look at the new _Sun Riders Rising_ comics. “Amber, look, look, these are the limited edition Sun Riders comics with holographic foil covers! They’re so cool, look at the variant cover illustrations! These are new, I thought they were coming out later in November but I guess Mr. Paulie put them out for Merchant’s Day!”

His sister looked over his shoulder. “Wow, look at that!” The covers’ gold and orange foil glinted in the sun, making them glow. “And look at the price. Sorry, Chiro.”

“Aw, really? Not even one?” He pouted at her.

“I mean, you can get one or two if you want, but do you want to blow all your allotted money on this one thing?”

Chiro sighed. “Okay… fine.”

“We can come back later if you have money left!” she reassured him.

“Yeah, fair, I guess.”

They made their way down the main street of the Shopping District, where the majority of the small craft booths were. Chiro excitedly jumped from booth to booth, looking at all the knick-knacks and toys and clothes. “Sis! They have aprons!” He waved his arms eagerly. “Look!”

There were indeed aprons of all sizes and colors neatly folded on the table. The young lady sitting at it waved at them. “Hi! Looking for anything in particular?”

“Just looking for right now,” Amber said, fiddling through the stacks of adult sized aprons. “Good catch, Chiro, I do need a new apron.”

“How about this one?” Chiro pulled one out from the middle of a pile and flipped it open. It was a pretty sky blue with white lace at the sleeves, tiny silver buttons in the middle, and a white tie around the waist. “You like blue.”

“I do,” his sister replied, pursing her lips. “Let me see if I like anything else better.”

After a few more minutes of searching, it became apparent that she didn’t like any of the other color combinations any better, and Chiro bought the blue one. He presented it to his sister with a smile and she ruffled his hair appreciatively.

Four booths down she paid him back with an action figure of the character Mouse Kaiser Dee. He’d been looking for either him or one of the other bad guys from that particular comic for a while. Chiro wrapped him up very neatly in a bunch of sheets of tissue paper and put him in the top of the apron bag.

A couple more booths over Amber bought a little yellow rabbit plushie for Nova, and at the booth across from that one Chiro bought a model spaceship kit for Sparx. They looked around at the rest of the booths for a while but didn’t see anything else that they wanted. But there was still more to see; they hadn’t checked out the big department store yet!

The automatic door hissed close behind them and they checked out the lay of the land. Women’s wear, jewelry/accessories, housewares, electronics, and kids’ wear were downstairs, and men’s wear, furniture, toys, shoes, and health and beauty were upstairs. The siblings looked at each other, shrugged, and decided to start upstairs.

“Do you need clothes, Chiro?” Amber said, idly looking through the young men’s shirts. “Like pants? Or pajamas? Oh, what about shoes? I did get you those new sneakers in April, I don’t think you’re gonna need new ones for a little bit.”

Chiro sorted through the jeans slowly. “I think the only think I might need is new pants? My cardigans and shirts still fit but the pants are getting short. My pajamas are fine, and no, I don’t need shoes.”

“You know, you don’t have to still wear your school uniform since you’re not going to school this year,” Amber said, looking at a pair of slacks with a practiced eye. “You can just wear normal clothes.”

Chiro made a face. “I don’t know. Force of habit, I guess.”

“It’s been an unbreakable habit so far,” she snorted. “Well, all right. It’s been working so far for you so I won’t complain, even if I think it’s silly.”

“Hey, you wear yours out sometimes too, and you _graduated_ ,” Chiro pointed out, raising an eyebrow at her. “Weirdo. You’re worse than me.”

“Touché,” his sister sighed. “I did wear it to meet the monkeys. I just wanted to make a good first impression.”

“Well, you did, I guess, even if that first impression included passing out and almost dying.”

“I thought we weren’t going to joke about that!”

“Okay, okay, my bad, sorry,” Chiro said, shoving the clothes aside a little harder than he should have. “I know, I know.”

“You’re right, though, Chiro, about my uniform, kinda,” Amber said. “I still think of it as my default outfit even though I don’t wear it very often these days.”

“You look nice today,” Chiro pointed out. “That’s a nice sweater.”

Amber looked down at herself. Brown boots with a low heel, a pair of light blue jeans, and a thick cream-colored sweater to ward off the light October chill. She hadn’t thought it was anything special, but it was nice that he noticed, and even nicer that he bothered to compliment her on it. He didn’t do that very often. “Aw. Thanks, Chiro.”

“Speaking of clothes, you wanna know something kinda weird?” Chiro asked, handing his sister a pair of jeans to hold. “I think my Hyper Form outfit is magic.”

She took them and laid them over her arm. “Chiro, you knew that, of course it’s magic. It was made from the costume I made you!”

“No, yeah, that part I knew already. But I’ve been using it to fight Formless, and monsters and stuff, and it’s gotten ripped and dirty. But if I change back into my regular clothes, my regular clothes are fine. And then when I switch back to Hyper Form again, my Hyper Form outfit would be in perfect shape, no stains or rips anywhere.”

“You’re right, that must be some kind of magic.”

“And here’s something else interesting, sis; it grows with me.”

“It grows with you?”

“Remember I told you before that I got a little bit taller? My jeans are getting a little bit short, but I never have that problem with my Hyper Form outfit. The shirt and pants always fit exactly right, even though apparently I’ve been growing.”

“That’s cool, though, Chiro. It’s really nice that you don’t have to sew up your clothes when they get ripped, some heroes have to do that.”

“That’s true. It is really convenient.” He grinned at her over the clothes rack.

They settled on two new pairs of jeans for Chiro, then they made their way over to the shoes and found Amber a sturdy new pair of boots. They were black with decorative silver and white embroidery at the top. Chiro pulled out all the silliest looking shoes he could find, from light up sneakers to boots with decorative feathers and buttons to a pair of stiletto heels with pink rhinestones covering them. Amber choked on a laugh when he showed her those. “Noooo, Chiro, please, no, I have to draw the line there…”

“I think you could pull them off,” he said, dangling them temptingly in front of her nose.

“I think you need to put them back,” Amber laughed. “I won’t use them, I can’t, they’re too tacky.”

Chiro grinned, his snarky Cheshire cat grin. “Please? I just want to see you walk in them.”

“If I try them on will you put them back?”

“Yes.”

Amber groaned and held out her hand for the sparkly pink nightmare shoes. “Fine.”

She put them on and walked to the end of the aisle and back while Chiro wheezed behind his hand. “Holy Shuggazoom, Amber…”

Amber plopped back down on the bench and took the shoes off. “There, happy?” She shoved her normal boots back on while Chiro put the heels back, still cracking up. Amber rolled her eyes and followed him out of the shoe section over to the checkout counter where she paid for the clothes and shoes.

“I don’t think I want anything else up here,” Amber said thoughtfully, looking at the directional signs suspended over the walkway. “Let’s go downstairs.”

Chiro pointed. “Look, the elevator’s right there.”

And it was. As they watched, a tall red-headed woman holding the hand of a small blonde girl walked into it before the doors closed immediately behind them. “Ah, I don’t want to wait for the elevator. The escalator’s right over here. Come on.”

Downstairs, Amber scoured homegoods for a couple of new nonstick cookie sheets and a frying pan while Chiro searched electronics for a new video game he’d been looking for. After a moment, he found a copy of the new _Shigoken Robo-Beast Wrangler_ game and gleefully gave it to his sister.

Amber held it up and looked at the back of the box. “Oh, this is the remake, isn’t it? You told me about this a while ago.”

“Yeah! The graphics in this one are supposed to be much better than the original!”

“Well, it’s your money, buddy. You have been looking forward to this game, I think.”

Chiro grinned and put it in the basket.

As they walked past the crafts section, Chiro tried to tug his sister’s arm to walk faster. His ploy immediately failed when she spotted a pattern book. “Chiro, Chiro, look! Coats, cloaks, gloves—oh, look, these gloves look a lot easier than the ones I did for the Super Quasar costume! —and there’s how to sew lots of different fabrics in here! I’ve gotta get this!”

“Are you making another costume?” Chiro asked as the book went into their basket.

“Well, I did finish the Moonlight Sailor Princess costume. And I told you I ended up going to only Saturday at Zoom Con, just for fun, since I did manage to finish it on time. I don’t know if I’ll ever make another full costume like that, even though the Aurora Six one is kind of tempting…” She shook her head. “I don’t know. But even if I don’t make another costume, I do like sewing, and I like reading about sewing.”

Chiro shrugged. “Yeah, okay.”

They made their way over to the next available checkout counter and Chiro bought his video game and Amber bought her cookware and the pattern book. As Amber handed her credit chip to the employee, Chiro’s stomach growled loudly.

Amber snorted and Chiro’s ears turned pink at the tips. “Someone’s hungry,” she said, grinning.

“It has been a long day,” the employee said, swiping Amber’s credit chip. “Everybody’s out shopping today! I heard there was a buy one get one free at the Hoverburger for Merchant’s Day today, if you want to see how busy it looks over there.”

Chiro pumped his fist and his sister chuckled. “Sounds like that’s where we’re going next. Thanks for letting us know.”

“Ah, no problem,” the employee said, handing Amber back her chip. “Have a good one.”

Chiro and Amber each took a handful of shopping bags and stepped through the doors to the outside. The boy looked both ways down the sidewalk. “Hey, is it just me, or are there less people around?”

“Well, it is afternoon. Maybe people went shopping earlier this morning and went home. Early bird gets the worm and all that.”

Chiro’s mouth twisted but he nodded. “Yeah, probably.” His stomach growled again, derailing any further worries. “Let’s go eat, I’m starving.”

“We didn’t really have lunch,” his sister said, grinning down at him. “Yeah, let’s eat.”

They ordered their meals at the Hoverburger and sat down in a booth, the shopping bags settled neatly on the seat next to them.

“Thanks for having me, sis,” Chiro said, sipping at his drink. “I’m having a lot of fun.”

“Thanks for having you?” Amber asked. “It’s our tradition, of course I’d want to ‘have you’.” She grinned. “I didn’t really want to fight Antauri about it but I was considering it if he didn’t let you come.”

Chiro snorted and shoved a fry in his mouth. “I’m glad he did, because you’d lose in like two seconds. He’d toss you on your butt without even having to look at you.”

Amber stuck her tongue out at him and he wrinkled his nose at her. It was true, because she did lack the training, but it still stung a little.

They chatted some more while they ate. Chiro told her about Nova’s latest training idea and the simulation robot that Otto was building to help her with it. Amber told him about work and the latest treats that Mrs. Hanna had come up with—Mega lollipops. Massive swirly lollipops that were bigger than any other sweet they sold at the shop. She chuckled at his reaction to that, his eyes that were just as big and round as the hamburger he was eating.

After their late lunch, they swung back down to the big street where all the booths were. Some were packed up and closed, all their wares sold, but there were quite a few still open. Chiro stopped by one that sold tea blends. “Hey, we didn’t get anything for Antauri yet, right?”

Amber looked in her shopping bags. “No. There’s something in here for Nova and something for Sparx but nothing for Antauri, Gibson, or Otto yet.”

“Well, we have to get something for everybody,” Chiro said. “Look at this tea. I think this is something Antauri would like.”

“You’d know better than me, I think,” Amber said, looking over his shoulder at the beautifully displayed packets of custom tea blends. “I trust your judgement.”

After a little bit of dithering, Chiro bought a handful of herbal blends that were supposed to promote relaxation. Antauri would probably like them for relaxing before meditating, he thought.

“What do you think Gibson would like?” Amber asked. Her knowledge of the Monkeys was still pretty limited. She’d talked with them a few times, helped them out once in a while, participated in activities like strategy lessons and now driving lessons, but hadn’t really gotten the chance to really, really make friends with them yet.

“Well…” Chiro pursed his lips. “Gibson loves all kinds of science stuff. Slides, beakers, cylinders, all the science equipment. He’s got a ton of textbooks and I’m sure he wouldn’t mind more…” he looked up at his sister, the corner of his mouth turned down, “but honestly I don’t know if I’d want to get him anything like that. I don’t want to get him something he has already or something that’s not the thing he needs.”

“Maybe… maybe food? Does he have any foods he likes?”

“He likes snacks. Salty stuff like pretzels and chips and popcorn. Sometimes he likes eating while he does lab work.”

“Maybe popcorn, then. Let’s check the snack carts.”

After they bought a bag of popcorn, they just walked down the sidewalk for a little bit. “Anywhere else you want to go, Chiro?” his sister asked, adjusting the bags in her hands. “If not, I’m gonna go drop everything off at home really fast.”

“Can we… can we go to the candy shop?” he asked, hefting his own bags up in his arms. “I want to say hi to Mrs. Hanna, I haven’t had time to say hi in a while.” He grinned. “And I want to see those new lollipops.”

“They’re crazy, I’m sure you’re gonna like them,” his sister said, smiling back. “Okay. Shuggazoom Sweets, here we come.”

The bell above the door tinged as Chiro elbowed it open and held it for his sister. He took a deep breath. Chocolate. And other sweet, sticky smells that promised to taste as good as they smelled.

“Amber!” came Mrs. Hanna’s voice over the din. She ducked out from behind the counter for a moment and made her way over to the pair. “Amber, I gave you the day off, dear.”

“I know,” Amber said, shifting her bags in her hands again. “But Chi—”

“Chiro!” the older woman said excitedly, as she spotted the boy a little ways off looking at the lifesavers.

The boy looked over and his eyes lit up. “Hi, Mrs. Hanna!”

“Chiro, darling! How have you been?” Mrs. Hanna clasped her hands together. “You’re working very hard, I expect. Have the monkeys been good to you? They’re keeping you very busy!”

Chiro grinned up at her. “I’m fine, Mrs. Hanna. I am busy, keeping an eye on the city is a full-time job, Antauri says. And the Monkeys…” he looked over at his sister and she gave him a soft smile “…the Monkeys are amazing. They’re… they’re smart and strong, they’re teaching me a lot, and… and they’re very, very kind to me.” He put his hand over his heart and traced the edge of his yellow Hyperforce comm. “They kind of adopted me, almost.”

“That’s true,” Amber added. “Kind of. Like it’s not official, but he lives in the Super Robot now, and he spends all his time there.” She nudged him in the shoulder. “You’re not technically adopted, but you’re at least being fostered.”

Chiro snorted. “Yeah. I miss you, though. A lot of the time I wish you were there with me… but then I remember that I fight monsters and I don’t want you in the middle of that all the time.”

“You’re sweet. And I’m glad we had some time together today.”

Chiro leaned his head on her shoulder. “Yeah. Me, too.”

“Well, I’m glad you’ve been doing well, Chiro,” Mrs. Hanna said kindly. “I’m happy both of you are happy and taking care of each other and being taken care of as well.” She ruffled Chiro’s hair gently. “Your mother would be very happy to know that. And proud of you, too, for watching over the city and protecting us from all Skeleton King’s monsters.”

The bell by the register rang shrilly and Chiro jumped. Mrs. Hanna chuckled. “Oh, I’m being called. Have a look around, and let me or Laura know if you need to buy anything.”

Amber sighed as the woman made her way back toward the counter. “I can’t believe she let me have the day off. On Merchant’s Day.”

“She’s always let you have Merchant’s Day off,” Chiro said. “’Cause you want to spend time with me.”

“I know, I know,” Amber groaned. “Doesn’t make me feel any less awful that she has to face the rush just with herself and poor Laura.”

“She’s got it,” Chiro said comfortingly. “She’s been doing this for a long time, she knows exactly what she’s doing. And Laura’s been working here for a while, right? She’ll be fine, too.”

“Yeah. I know. Mrs. Hanna always does this type of thing for me…” her voice trailed off.

Chiro nudged her in the ribs. “You in there?”

She blinked and looked down at him. “Yeah, sorry. Why did we stop in here? Do we need something?”

“We still need a snack or something for Otto and I wanted to see the Mega lollipops, where are they?”

“There should be a couple at the end of the aisle right here, this one.” She pointed at the next aisle over and he disappeared around the corner to check it out.

“Amber?”

Amber turned around. “Oh, hey, Laura!”

“I wasn’t expecting to see you here! You spend so much time working here, you want to be here on your day off, too?” the purple-haired young lady laughed.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you, although I probably should have. We always work opposite days so I don’t usually see you, and if I wasn’t working, than you probably were here.”

“Excellent deduction,” Laura said, smiling, as she quickly filled in the empty spaces on the shelf with new candies. “Mrs. Hanna said that we’ll close for an hour or so around 4:30 so we can both go shopping before everything’s sold out.”

“Oh, right, she usually does that, I forgot.”

A sharp pain like a pinprick stabbed at Amber’s left hand and she almost dropped her bags. Almost in the same moment, came a quiet “Ow” from the aisle behind her.

“Oh, that’s my brother,” Amber said, wincing and wiggling her fingers as the pain dulled to a tingle. “I gotta go see what happened. Nice talking to you, Laura.”

Laura grinned. “I am kind of jealous that Mrs. Hanna always lets you have off on Merchant’s Day, it’s so not fair! But she does always close the store for a while so we can go shopping, so it’s okay, I guess. I still get to go buy the stuff I was looking at.” She waved. “Hope you have fun, maybe I’ll see you around later!”

Amber found Chiro at the end of the aisle, examining a nice inch-long cut on his left index finger. “I can’t leave you alone for five minutes, Chiro,” she sighed, only half joking.

Chiro groaned and pouted up at her. “The cardboard cut me. Not my fault.”

“Tell you what, let me heal that with my powers, that way you don’t have to bother Mrs. Hanna for a bandage.”

“I guess, if you want…”

Amber took his hand gently and concentrated, and in a moment her hand was bathed in warm green energy. As Chiro watched, the cut sealed itself and after a second it was like nothing had ever happened.

“You didn’t _have_ to heal me,” Chiro said, kneeling down and picking up the bags he’d dropped. “It’s fine, just a little cut. Nothing you’d have to waste your powers over.”

Amber sighed. “I know it’s silly. I don’t know, I… I just want to use it since it’s basically my only power. I don’t have cool weapons like the Monkeys or elemental powers like you. I don’t have big strong flashy attacks that can wipe out monsters. I’m pretty useless… so I like to do what I can, even if it’s just a cut.”

“Aren’t you supposed to start Monkey Combat Training with Nova next week? You’ll at least have some physical training then!”

“Yeah… but I’m worried about that. And I feel silly being worried, but you told me Nova gets intense when she trains sometimes and I don’t want… like I know she won’t hurt me on purpose but…”

Chiro tilted his head at her. “We did take karate when we were little. That helps a little bit. It helped me. At least some of the stances and the balance stuff helped me learn Nova’s stuff faster.”

“I know, it should help, but it’s been so long since I’ve done that that I don’t know if I’ll remember any of it. And also Monkey Combat Training is totally different.”

“It’s not that different,” Chiro said. “You’ll do fine. You’ll do great, actually. And Nova knows how to build up slowly, since she had to do that with me.”

“Well… okay. And I’ll get there when I get there, I guess.” She was quiet for a second, nibbling her bottom lip. “You… you remember the assignment Antauri gave me the other week? For me to meditate and try and discover a new power?”

“Yeah, I remember.” Chiro was looking up at her, mouth making a curious ‘o’ and eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly.

“I… I tried. I did. And I don’t know if I’m doing it wrong or just bad at it or what, but it hasn’t worked.” Her eyebrows furrowed down in a flat frustrated line. “I’ve got nothing.”

“That’s okay. Don’t worry. And sis, please stop saying you’re useless. You keep saying you are, we talked about this before, and it always makes me kinda sad because you’re not. You’re just learning still. It took me two weeks after I woke up the Monkeys before I got Hyper Form. Then it took me a week after that to figure out that I had lighting powers. Then all during that I had combat training with Nova, so I was learning all the cool fighting moves. It takes time. I don’t know how long it’ll take you, but just… just cut yourself some slack, okay? Please?”

Amber sighed and nodded. “Okay.”

“Good.” He smiled at her and held up a jumbo bag of gummy zoo animal candy. “I found this for Otto, we should get it for him.”

Amber gratefully accepted the change of subject. “Did you find the Mega lollipops?”

“I did, the display was empty, though.”

“Awww…” Amber’s mouth twisted. “You wanted one, too…”

“It’s okay,” Chiro said. “I really just wanted to look at them because I wasn’t sure if you were exaggerating how big they were.”

“Well, now I _have_ to find you one,” his sister said, turning around and making her way toward the counter. “There might be some up here, and we have to buy the gummy animals anyway.”

The line was thankfully not long and in about five minutes Amber dropped the big bag of candy on the counter. “Merchant’s Day discount. Employee discount,” Mrs. Hanna read off the register cheerfully. “$3.50.”

Amber handed over her credit chip while Chiro oohed and ahhed over the Mega lollipops in the case next to the register. “You were right, sis, they _are_ like eight inches across. Holy Shuggazoom!”

“Do you want one, Chiro?” Mrs. Hanna asked, hesitating before swiping Amber’s chip.

Chiro shook his head. “Nah, I’m good for now. Amber told me about them and I just wanted to look at them because I didn’t believe how huge they were!”

Mrs. Hanna laughed and swiped the credit chip. “Yes, they are, Chiro.”

They departed the candy shop and turned left, down the sidewalk out of the Shopping District and toward the Residential District. They had made it about a hundred feet away from the store when Chiro’s comm began to beep. “Monkey Team to Chiro. Come in, Chiro!”

Chiro tapped the button. “I read you, Antauri.”

“Formless activity in City Center and the Shopping District! We need your help, Chiro.”

“I’m on my way. Chiro out.” He clicked his comm off and looked up at his sister, mouth twisted. “Sorry, sis. Skeleton King doesn’t care that it’s a holiday, apparently.”

“Ah, it’s okay, Chiro. I think we both knew deep down that we weren’t going to get the whole afternoon to ourselves.”

Chiro morphed into his Hyper Form clothing. “I’m going to escort you out of the Shopping District but after that you have to get home on your own. I’ve got bone drones to deal with still.”

“You don’t have to, Chiro,” Amber said. “I can get home okay.”

“Antauri said there were Formless in the Shopping District and we’re still in the Shopping District. I don’t want you to run into any of them. Now come on.”

Amber fished in one of her bags and pulled out her new frying pan. “If I run into a Formless, I’ll just smack them with this.”

“A frying pan?” Chiro deadpanned, raising an eyebrow.

Amber shifted all her bags to her other arm and twirled the pan around. “If a princess can do it, so can I.”

“Fine. At least you have a weapon. Now come on, I have to get back to the others soon.”

They hustled out of the Shopping District and thankfully didn’t run into any Formless on their way. Chiro waved goodbye and set off on a smart run back the way they’d come to check on the team and the citizens still shopping.

Amber got home easily enough, only slightly hampered by her multiple shopping bags. She unlocked the door, closed it behind her, and dropped all the bags on the coffee table. She plopped down on the couch and groaned. Okay, the bags weren’t heavy somehow, even though they should be… but they were just very unwieldy and hard to carry. She blew out a breath and collected her thoughts. _Probably should sort out all this stuff so I can take whatever’s for the team back to the Super Robot._

She spent the next few minutes doing exactly that, sorting out the Monkey Team’s gifts and Chiro’s purchases from her own. Her apron, cookware, boots, and pattern book she put away, and Chiro’s game, clothes, and toys, along with the Monkeys’ presents, she packed in two big bags to take back the next time she visited them.

As she was doing that, it occurred to her that she’d forgotten to buy a new work skirt at the department store. _Do you really want to go back? You just got home. And there’s Formless in the Shopping District._

Amber sighed. She did need a new skirt. And while there had been Formless a little while ago, she knew the Hyperforce was taking care of it. She fiddled with the silver comm around her neck, feeling the tangibility of the smooth metal of the monkey’s face and the ridges of the thick silver chain holding it around her neck. She did have her comm, and she could call for backup if she ran into trouble. That was all she could do, right now. She beat back the anxious thoughts and took a deep breath. It would be okay. The team had her back, right? That’s what Otto had reminded her.

She locked the door and shoved her key in her pocket. She was back in the Shopping District in about ten minutes, and back at the department store about five minutes after that. In her hurry, she stepped into the elevator instead of the store entrance. _Oh, stars. Waste of time._ She sighed and resigned herself to the minor inconvenience, reaching out to press the button for the lower level. At least the store was right there.

Her eyebrows shot up as she realized that there weren’t any buttons.

 _Um…_ Amber turned to see if any of the other passengers had noticed this strange design flaw, and all of them seemed to be preoccupied. Ah, it was probably just a new, weird design, one of those minimalist architecture styles she’d read about in the newspaper. Her mouth twisted and she turned to the short man standing in the corner of the elevator. He was wearing a black steward’s uniform. Perhaps he controlled the elevator remotely? She tapped him on the shoulder. “Sir? I’m going to the department store, to the women’s section, it’s on the lower level.”

The short man turned very slowly and looked at her, and a harsh chill ran up Amber’s spine. The harsh chill was followed by a growl in her chest, her heart—no, not her heart. The warm, comforting energy that lay next to her heart. The Power Primate. It growled at the man, and Amber’s adrenaline spiked. There was something weird going on.

The elevator shuddered violently and jerked to a halt, and a woman behind her shrieked in fright. The door slowly slid open, and Amber’s breath caught.

They weren’t in the city anymore.

The doors opened to reveal a cluster of Formless. One reached into the elevator and grabbed a lady and her husband, and another grabbed a teen and a younger kid. One reached for Amber and she snarled, her Power Primate filling her with an intense ire.

Then the Formless turned its hand into a razor-sharp sword, holding it just at eye level so it knew Amber saw it. Her adrenaline fizzled out. No powers. She couldn’t really fight back, and the very last thing she wanted was to get herself hurt or make things worse for the other citizens who were even more vulnerable than herself. She ground her teeth and let herself be yanked out of the elevator by the arm. The elevator disappeared, winking out of existence behind her.

The Formless shoved her in front of it, roughly escorting her behind the rest of the group of Formless carrying their captives. Amber looked around, trying to get a bearing on her surroundings. It was dark. Quite dark. It looked to be the middle of the night, and while she didn’t dare check her watch, she knew it was still not quite dinnertime. That told her that they’d traveled quite a long distance from the city, perhaps halfway around planet Shuggazoom, into the side of it that was facing away from their sun. The rock under her feet suddenly dropped off, and she stopped instinctively. Stairs. And down, down, down… there was a pit. An enormous sinkhole lined with ramps and staircases. The Formless shoved her in the back and she was forced to descend the stairs.

As she descended, she caught sight of people. Shuggazoomian citizens. _Oh. So this is where everyone’s been,_ she thought guiltily. They were trudging up and down the stone ramps, with shovels, axes, drills, and carts, digging and moving the heavy dark stone. Her heart began to beat faster as she got closer. She could pick out faces she knew. Ma and Pa Shenko. Laura. Glenny. Mr. Paulie. Their mayor. Lots of people she didn’t know, of all ages, kids through seniors. No. No, what was happening?

They reached the bottom of the stairs and the Formless shoved her hard off the last step. She fell, landing hard on the unforgiving stone. Something clanked down next to her and she looked over. A shovel. She looked up at the Formless above her and it pointed to the shovel, to her, and then to the mass of citizens resolutely working.

Her hand twitched and she was seized with an urge to grab that shovel and smash all the Formless back into oozy puddles. But before she could act on that urge, she noticed two things. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a large round robot with a huge red screen floating above the center of the pit. TV Monster. Skeleton King was watching them. And the other Formless were shoving tools into the hands of more terrified citizens. If she retaliated, without a plan and without help, the other citizens could be hurt. She sighed, got to her feet, and picked up the shovel. She threaded the crowd until she found a section of the wall where rocks needed to be moved and cleared, and began shoveling stones out of the way.

 _How could this happen? What’s Skeleton King up to?_ Her head whirled as she worked. They were so far away from the city… Was there something special about this place? Or maybe… maybe he was just collecting all the citizens in one place so he could kill them all at once? Her heart cried out against that thought. They were digging… maybe they were digging to find something? Maybe there was a treasure? But if it was a treasure that Skeleton King wanted, then it was something evil that was going to do everyone a lot of harm.

Her fingers hovered over her silver comm. She knew her comm could reach the Super Robot, even though she was far away. The Monkeys said that they would help her if she needed it, and help was something she and every citizen needed right about now.

“Mom?” came a sob from nearby. Amber’s attention was wrenched over toward the cry. It was a little blonde boy, maybe ten, talking into a comm. “Mom, I don’t know where I am. It’s dark and I’m scared, and there’s Formless. Are you here? Everyone seems to be here. If you… if you’re here—”

Before he could finish his sentence, his comm was snatched out of his hand by the sharp black fingers of a Formless. The boy looked up at it, trembling. “Uh…?”

The Formless dropped the comm to the ground and stepped on it, crunching the device into pieces. The message was clear: no calls for help. Nobody leaves.

Nearly at that same moment, a familiar voice rang out from her own comm. “Chiro to Amber. Hey, sis, the city’s clear so if you want we can—”

Amber hastily tapped the comm to answer it. Damn it, if she was going to lose her comm anyway, she’d rather get Chiro the information quickly. Her mind flew, trying to think of what to say that would explain what had happened. “Chiro, quick, we’ve all been kidnapped, we’re in trouble, there’s a weird elevator—” 

A black claw flew out of nowhere and grabbed her comm, snapping the chain holding it around her neck. Amber’s eyes widened and her breath caught as she watched the Formless hold Otto’s precious handiwork in its hand, the chain tangled roughly around its fingers.

“Amber!” came Chiro’s instant response. “An elevator? What? Where are you?”

“Formless!” Amber yelped, her body freezing up in fright as the Formless squeezed its fist tight, cracking the silver monkey face in half and breaking its little green eyes. The harsh crack of the metal breaking was followed by a sad _brmmm_ as the comm turned off. The Formless looked at her, its tiny empty black eyes meeting her wide blue ones. It dropped the comm on the ground and the silver face split neatly in half, sparking and fizzling.

No! The comm! The Monkeys had given that to her!

The Formless grabbed her arm and pointed her toward more carts that needed to be filled with dirt. She gritted her teeth and moved as told, and her arm was released. The instant the Formless moved away, she knelt down and picked up as many of the little pieces of the comm as she could. “Oh no…” Her lip trembled as she traced her fingers over the fractures in the green and silver metal. Now she had no chance, no hope of getting a message to Chiro or the Monkeys. She was on her own.

She slipped the shards into her pocket and picked up her shovel again. _If not the comm,_ she pondered, reaching for any shred of hope, _maybe the empathy bond?_ Her own bond with him was faint, as it was affected by distance, but she could sense that he was worried. And if she could sense that, she hoped he could sense her own worry and fear in turn. He would figure it out. She let herself smile at the thought of her brother banging on the elevator doors, yelling to be let in.

It was another 45 minutes or so of miserable back-breaking digging and moving rocks and dirt, before she felt a familiar feeling tug at the corner of her mind. She looked up and squinted into the distance, and relief rushed through her. Standing on the very edge of the very top of the pit was a white-clothed figure with an orange scarf. Chiro. And where Chiro was, the Monkeys were never far behind.

After a second, though, he turned and disappeared. Amber let out a sigh as she shoveled a cart full of dirt. If He was probably trying to figure out what to do. It would be okay.

A couple minutes later she felt a hard blow to her shoulder blades, then to her stomach. She gasped and fell back against a cart, jostling the man pushing it. No one had pushed her or struck her… so that meant this feeling was from the empathy bond. The man pulled her up and she leaned on his cart for a second while she got her breath.

“Hey, look everyone! It’s Chiro!” she heard Mr. Gakslapper call out quietly.

Amber watched her brother clamber down the cliff quickly, as she herself wove through the crowd to the center of the pit. He caught sight of her as soon as his feet hit the ground. “Amber!” He dashed over to her and looked up at her, eyes wide. “Holy Shuggazoom, here you are! You were right, the weird elevator took me here…” His voice trailed off. “Are you okay?”

“Filthy. Miserable. Exhausted. But so, so glad you’re here,” Amber said, smiling down at him. Every time she got caught in one of Skeleton King’s attacks, it was terrifying waiting to be rescued. It never got any easier. But help always did come, and help was here now.

Chiro looked around at the throngs of exhausted citizens. “What… what happened to all of you?”

Mr. Harrison began to explain. “Happened to us just the same, captured by that haunted elevator and dumped in this pit of doom.” He pointed upwards, emphasizing just how far away the sky was and how deep the pit had become.

“It’s too deep to escape from, Chiro, and they’re making us dig it even deeper,” Ma Shenko said. “It’ll never end!”

Chiro smirked. “It ends now.”

Out of nowhere came a huge laser blast that engulfed Chiro’s entire body in an instant. He crumpled to the ground, unconscious, and all the citizens instinctively stepped back. Skeleton King’s harsh laughter echoed in the pit, the bowl shape serving to amplify the sound to terrifying levels. TV Monster descended from the sky, swooping down on the unconscious Chiro and picking him up by his scarf. Amber growled but Ma Shenko put her arm out in front of her.

“It looks as though we have another prisoner,” Skeleton King said gleefully, “the guest of honor.” He paused a moment, then turned back to the citizens. “Get back to work!”

A Formless pointed back to the ramp where the carts waited to be emptied of their cargo. Amber’s mouth twisted but she obeyed. Out of the corner of her eye she watched TV Monster carry Chiro off to the corner of the pit, to the prison where some of the citizens were kept.

She was exhausted and the rocks didn’t get any lighter the longer she worked. She lost track of the time, her whole existence shrinking down to the next rock, the next shovelful of dirt, the next cart, the next step. Her hands and her back ached, protesting every new burden. As hard as she worked at the candy shop, as much as she exercised, walking where she needed to go in the city, this was a hundred times worse.

At long last Skeleton King apparently decided to let them stop for the night. The citizens were herded into single-file lines and marched over to the prison where each person was put in their own cell. Amber sat and glared at the Formless, hands folded over her chest. It didn’t do anything more, only turned and climbed back down to the ground. She sighed and made a half-hearted effort to kick at the cage bars. They had melted away to allow her to be placed inside, but to her surprise, they had grown back almost as soon as she’d crossed through them. And then as if to contradict that observation, that they might be made of ooze or a similar substance—they felt and sounded like metal. Creepy.

“Amber?” came a familiar voice from somewhere to her right.

She peeked outside and to her utter relief, Chiro was sitting in a cage on her level, two cells over. “Chiro!” His hands were bound in thick metal cuffs, and she thought she saw cuffs on his legs, but otherwise he was free to move. He didn’t seem worse for wear for being knocked out by TV Monster’s laser blast and she was thankful for that.

He knelt and looked over at her, brows furrowed. “Are you okay? What’s going on here? Why’s Skeleton King making you all do this?”

Amber rubbed her head. She was physically exhausted but too mentally frazzled to sleep. “I’m… I’m okay. I’m more tired than I’ve ever been ever and my blisters have blisters, and I think everyone else is the same. I don’t know. What, you think Skeleton King actually told us his evil plan? No, not this time.” She nibbled on her lower lip and rubbed her hands together gingerly, trying to massage the aches without hurting the blisters. “If I had to guess, though... I’d say there’s something down here that he’s looking for. Something that’s deep in the ground.”

“Why the citizens, though?” Chiro asked. “He can make all the Formless he wants, and he can make them do it.”

Amber sighed. “I… I don’t know, Chiro. I don’t know.”

Chiro tugged at his cuffs, trying to break the sturdy link connecting them. “Gah! Stupid cuffs, stupid comm… ugh, this is all my fault, I didn’t ask the Monkeys to help me and now look what happened.”

“Ask them for help? What happened after you went back to the Shopping District?”

Chiro quickly summarized what happened while he had been out trying to take care of the Formless, how the Monkeys had basically done all the work for him and not left any for him to take care of. He’d been upset that the Monkeys hadn’t let him help, so he retaliated by investigating the weird elevator by himself and not asking them for any help.

“Oh, Chiro, how could you do that?” Amber groaned. “Why wouldn’t you get everyone together to figure out how to help?” Chiro was a good hero! He knew by now how to do a good job leading the Monkeys, so why on Shuggazoom would he run off by himself to fight something like this?

 _He is a teenager,_ a small voice in the back of her head told her. _He’s stubborn like you, like Mom._ He was upset, and he lashed out like teenagers do. How many times had Chiro not told her something he wanted to figure out on his own? How many times had he made a misstep like this in an effort to prove he could handle things in his own way?

“It made sense at the time,” Chiro mumbled. “They didn’t want to let _me_ help? I didn’t want _their_ help. I could do it by myself. It was just some Formless, no big deal.”

“But it turned out to be a way bigger deal than you thought,” Amber sighed. “Chiro, you have to let yourself be helped. The Monkeys wouldn’t be upset at all if you called them saying something weird was happening in the city…”

“I didn’t want to call the whole team, drag them away from everything they were doing, just for three Formless.” He slumped down further. “It’s stupid, this is all stupid, I’m stupid… can’t believe it.”

“Chiro, honest and true, I’m glad you’re here and you’re okay,” Amber said softly. “I know you’ll figure out what to do. Can’t you call them now?”

“My comm broke, I think that blast from TV Monster fried it,” Chiro said dejectedly. “I can’t call the Monkeys for help with a broken comm.”

“Aww, Chiro…” Amber fished in her pocket and her fingers brushed against the sharp metal edges of her own broken comm. She pulled it out anyway, heart heavy. “Mine’s broken, too, a Formless grabbed it and crunched it up when it heard your call.”

“Aw, that’s the comm that Otto made for you…”

Her heart trembled and tears cropped up on her bottom lashes. “Y-yeah…”

“Sis, don’t worry about it. Otto can fix it. It’ll be fine,” he assured her. “But still, I’ve got to let the Monkeys know we’re in trouble somehow…”

“Otto can’t fix it if we don’t get out of here,” Amber muttered to herself quietly, rubbing her eyes dry with the back of her sleeve.

There was silence for a few minutes, and Amber just sat and tried to breathe and stay calm. The silence was broken by a gasp. “The Power Primate!” came her brother’s sharp realization.

Immediately a warmth flooded her soul, a gentle calm that soothed her sore body and distressed mind. She breathed, inhaling the warmth, and felt better. _Monkey Team, hear me,_ came the call, a telepathic message that she knew the Monkey Team would hear. They would know Chiro was in trouble when they couldn’t contact him, and they’d know she was in trouble if they couldn’t contact her, either. Not to mention, if they ventured out into the streets, they might be suspicious of the fact that all the citizens had mysteriously disappeared.

There was a _tink tink tink_ sound of something banging on metal, and Amber looked out of her cell to see a Formless banging a piece of something that looked like bone on the metal bars of Chiro’s cage. Amber wanted to kick it in the face.

Chiro sat back down, slumping against the wall of his cell. “I think it worked,” he said, smiling at her. “Don’t worry.”

Amber settled herself down at an angle that she could see her brother’s cell. “I hope so.”

It was a long time before the Monkeys arrived, and when they did, it wasn’t in the company of the Super Robot, like Amber was hoping. They had been bound just as Chiro had, hands encased in bonds of sturdy metal. They were placed in five cells catty-corner to Chiro and Amber. Nova kicked at the bars just as Amber had, to the same amount of success.

TV Monster descended into the center of the prison cells, ensuring every citizen could hear Skeleton King’s voice. “Tomorrow, a new dawn will dawn on Shuggazoom City. No more meddling monkeys, no more boy hero, no more humans at all. They will be here, digging my pit, each and every one replaced by my monster army.”

Amber slammed her fist against the floor of her cell. No! That couldn’t be Shuggazoom’s fate. That couldn’t be the fate of herself, her brother, the Monkeys, or her friends!

“And tomorrow, in Shuggazoom City, only my Formless minions will stalk the streets,” Skeleton King went on, jubilant in his victory. “Evil will triumph, and I shall rule!” With one last harsh cackle from Skeleton King, TV Monster rose up out of the cell block, flying out and away from all the citizens, who were most definitely not going to sleep well anymore.

“I _so_ do not like that guy,” Nova deadpanned.

Chiro groaned. “And it’s all _my_ fault.”

“Sometimes even heroes need help,” Antauri said wisely.

“I tried to call ya,” Chiro said. “Using the Power Primate.”

Antauri smiled. “And we came, did we not?”

Chiro perked up a little. “Yeah. You did.”

“We’re also trapped on some distant planet trillions of miles from Shuggazoom City,” Sparx complained, rattling his cuffs.

Amber blinked and her breath caught in her chest. _Oh no! Is it… is it possible we’re on another planet? I didn’t think of that!_

“No, look,” Chiro said, pointing up at the moon hanging in the night sky.

Gibson leaned forward excitedly. “Of course! It’s our moon, Ranger 7! We’re still on our planet. We must be far outside the city, in the Zone of Wasted Years.”

Amber sighed in relief. If Ranger 7 still hung in the sky, they were still on Shuggazoom. And for some reason, that gave her a shred of hope.

“We may as well be a trillion miles away,” Chiro complained, half-heartedly trying once again to break the cord between his cuffs. “We can’t do anything.”

“Oh, but we can,” Antauri told him. “We too can call for help.”

There was a mechanical hissing noise, and Amber craned her neck to see what the Monkeys were up to. A long colored cord emerged from the helmet of each one of the Monkeys, all snaking through the air and eventually settling within Chiro’s cell. They began to glow with bright energy, feeding from each of the Monkeys over to Chiro.

“Uh, this is a… a good thing that’s happening, right?” Chiro asked hesitantly.

After a long moment, there was a loud howl from the Power Primate, that Amber could hear within her mind. At the same moment as that roar, a bright beam of green energy arched out of Chiro’s cell over the bounds of the prison, up and over the walls of the pit, and out of sight. Amber felt her own Power Primate growl in solidarity.

Chiro grinned. “I’ve never done this before, but it’s awesome! We’re gonna get everyone out of here.”

“It’ll work, Chiro,” Nova said. “As long as we have you, everything’s gonna be okay.”

Amber dozed for a little while, the only sound in the pit the murmur of citizens talking and the infernal _ding_ of the stupid elevator. But it wasn’t long before something completely unexpected happened. The ground shook with the familiar steps of the Super Robot, who loomed tall above their prison. It reached down and with a rumble, the prison was lifted up into the air. It shook violently and the citizens screamed in fright.

“We’re goin’ home,” Chiro said, fierce determination painted all over his face.

The Robot lifted up into the air, the entire prison firmly in its grip, and flew as fast as it could through the Zone of Wasted Years back toward Shuggazoom City. The Monkeys and Chiro were piloting it, Amber realized at last. Somehow, when all six of them were joined together with the cables, they could pilot the Super Robot remotely. _As long as we have you._ That was true, Amber realized, recalling that Sparx had told her one time that it was incredibly difficult if not impossible to activate the Super Robot without Chiro, without all six pilots. If Chiro was there, they could use the remote startup.

Made sense, then, why they hadn’t brought it in the first place. She could forgive them for that.

“Formless,” Chiro grunted. The Monkeys all screeched in united agreement.

Amber couldn’t see what was happening, only the Super Robot’s silver chest above them and the sensation of flying much faster than she’d ever flown before.

“Hey, Chiro, how ‘bout if we let you handle this one,” Sparx said.

Chiro’s response was a knowing smirk.

Amber could hear the noises of rockets and lasers being fired, and the familiar _splosh_ of Formless exploding into puddles of goop. She gripped the bars of her prison and took a breath. That was one problem taken care of.

The Robot slowed down and hovered for a moment before landing solidly on the ground. It set the prison down with a rumble, and Amber had never been so glad to be on land again. There was another huge vibration, and all of a sudden walls were crumbling. The citizens surged from their cages, and Amber was able to squeeze between the bars of her own cell.

Chiro grabbed her hand and squeezed it tight, and reflexively she squeezed back. He pulled her down the crumbling stairs of the prison block, making sure all the citizens were escaping and not trapped still. They emerged onto the blessedly familiar terrain of City Center, not a few blocks from the Industrial District and the Super Robot’s docking port.

_Ding_

The team turned to see the elevator alone in the center of the street. Its doors opened to reveal its steward, who looked furious.

The citizens screamed and ran, which was just as well. “Go!” Amber shouted, herding people away from the elevator. “The Hyperforce is gonna take care of it! Get to safety!”

Within moments it was just Chiro, the Monkeys, Amber, and the elevator. Nova cracked her knuckles. “Ha! If that little guy’s the best Skeleton King can do, we got nothing to worry about!”

Amber opened her mouth to add a comment, but it immediately died on her tongue. A horrid screeching sound rent the air as the elevator seemed to deform, collapsing in on itself and reforming into something new and infinitely more disgusting. The steward now stood on top of the elevator’s roof, and the elevator itself was definitely a lot less metal and a lot more fleshy. In a swoop of cloth the steward removed his robe, to reveal lines and lines of buttons adorning his chest and stomach. And impossibly worse than that only, he didn’t have any legs or feet; he was fused at the waist to the elevator itself. Amber gagged. A monster! The elevator itself was the monster! And she’d been inside it!

“So there’s the buttons,” Chiro said, taken aback by this new revelation.

“Ew,” Nova said, mouth wrinkling in disgust.

Amber wholeheartedly agreed with that statement.

“Okay, elevator monster, you are going down. Lady Tomahawk!” Nova summoned her weapons and slammed them into the ground, creating a fissure that would surely have trapped any other monster.

This monster, however, was different.

_Ding!_

It teleported out of the way of Nova’s attack, reappearing behind her and opening its doors to reveal an array of very large, sharp swords. Nova beat most of them back without difficulty, but the remainder lodged themselves in a wall which then collapsed on top of the yellow Monkey.

“Nova!” Otto yelped. He ran to help her and was met by the elevator monster and an array of green plasma balls. He sliced most of them out of the way but one of them hit him in the stomach and he got blasted back and hit a wall hard.

Chiro jumped down from a high angle and kicked the monster hard in the chest with both feet, stunning it for a moment. “Help Nova and Otto!” he yelled.

Antauri and Sparx rushed over to Nova and Amber rushed over toward Otto, who was still covered in smoking green orbs that she didn’t want to touch. She looked around frantically for anything to help and found a flat piece of rubble that would serve nicely as a lever. She wedged it between the orbs and pulled, and one of them flew free. “Otto! Otto, are you okay?” she cried.

There was a groan from inside the pile that told her that the green Monkey was still alive, and her adrenaline rushed up hot. She was going to help. Otto had helped her that morning. Now she had to help him. She wedged more and more green orbs out of the way and after a few minutes Otto had a free hand. He turned it into his saw and sliced the rest of his body free. Amber knelt down next to him. “You okay?”

Otto wiped his nose with his thumb. “’Course I am!”

_Ding!_

“Wuh oh,” Otto said, turning toward the sound.

“Get the others!” Chiro screamed, pointing at a pile of rocks under which several colored tails and silver arms were visible.

Amber’s adrenaline was still broiling hot in her veins as she watched her brother brawl with the elevator monster. The Power Primate vibrated in her chest, its energy spreading throughout her body. It was like her adrenaline, but something unique, a power that filled her with determination and certainty.

_Follow your hunches. And remember, you’re not doin’ this by yourself. We got your back._

_Sis, you’re not useless. You’re just learning still. Cut yourself some slack. It takes time._

_Sometimes even heroes need help._

She screamed, a high primate cry, and in an instant found herself standing on the corner of the top of the elevator right next to the monster. _What? Where am I? What happened?_

Chiro wrestled with the monster, pushing random buttons in hopes that one would be the one to do something useful. The elevator jerked underneath her feet and she lost her balance and fell. Before she could hit the ground, however, a flash of green energy enveloped her, and she found herself kneeling next to Nova.

“Amber!” Nova said in disbelief, throwing rocks out of the way, looking for Antauri. “You can teleport?”

“A… apparently?” Amber said weakly, looking down at her body that was sparking with green energy. “Is… is that what I’ve been doing?”

“That’s awesome!” Chiro shouted. “See if you can get it… to… stay still!”

Amber furrowed her brow, imagining herself once again on top of the elevator roof, and in a flash of green light she found herself there. She threw her arms around the monster’s shoulders in a nelson hold, locking them back as Chiro pressed another button.

_Ding!_

The monster and the two siblings vanished and popped back into existence a few feet to the left. The monster growled and shook Chiro off defiantly, and he slipped and fell, screaming as he went. “Chiro!” Amber screamed. In her distraction, the monster shook itself loose and Amber slipped as well, hitting the ground hard.

She shook her head and groaned, looking up at the monster now above her, and her eyes blew wide. Chiro was holding the doors of the elevator open with all four limbs, with all his strength. The doors had changed with the monster’s transformation, and were now jagged with edges just as sharp and dangerous as teeth. Amber had no doubt that any normal person could lose an arm or a leg to those metal jaws.

Gibson stepped up beside her as Otto and Nova prepared to rescue Chiro. “Amber, we need to apply a strong magnetic field directly inside the creature’s energy field. Which means we need to have it remain in one place long enough for Antauri and Sparx to apply said magnetic field.” He pulled her to her feet and looked up at her. “Can we count on you to keep it steady?”

Her anxiety screeched. _No! No, this… this is my first time using this power! I can’t, what if I hurt everybody? What if I hurt Chiro?_

Otto’s voice resounded in her heart to counteract her fear. _Take a deep breath. Follow your gut._ _We got your back._

Amber took a deep breath and nodded. “You got it, Gibson.”

The look of plain relief that crossed the blue Monkey’s face told her she’d made the right choice.

“Go, Amber, now!” Antauri said, the moment that Chiro was yanked free from the snapping doors.

Amber concentrated and zapped herself up to the roof of the elevator again, face to face with the monster. It was even more hideous up close, now that she was paying attention to it. She had to keep it steady. What would keep it steady?

She didn’t get a chance to wonder that for very long, though, as the monster’s arms grabbed for her. She grabbed its shoulders, fingers digging into the skin. She could sense the monster trying to teleport, to turn itself sideways or upside down to shake her loose, but she couldn’t let it do that. It flickered almost out of sight but Amber pushed back, fighting against its power, using her own to force it to rematerialize. It growled with annoyance but Amber growled back, drawing on the Power Primate to force the monster to stay in one place.

“Hey, elevator monster!” she heard Sparx shout. “Teleport this!” The hairs on her arms and the back of her neck stood up. “Magna-Tingler Blast!”

“Jump!” she heard Nova scream.

Amber dove backwards off the top of the elevator, concentrating hard as she fell, and in another green flash she found herself landing unsteadily next to Chiro on the ground. He grabbed for her arm as she steadied herself.

Antauri and Sparx’s combo attack had indeed disrupted the elevator monster’s teleportation field. As they watched, it collapsed in on itself once more, folding tighter and tighter under the strain of Sparx’s strong magnetic force, until it buckled under the strain completely and vanished with a quiet _whsshp._

“Ding!” Otto said proudly.

They all stood there for a moment, watching the air, the empty space, to see if anything would happen. After an entire minute, they came to the conclusion that the monster really was gone. The team let out a collective breath.

Chiro turned to his sister. “Holy Shuggazoom! You can… you can teleport?”

Amber’s adrenaline had completely drained out, leaving her feeling rather tired. “I guess so? This is new, Chiro, I never… never thought I could do anything like that!”

“I told you! Didn’t I tell you!” he cheered. “You just needed to wait, cut yourself some slack, and look! New powers! And teleporting! That’s awesome!”

Amber let out a little chuckle. “You were right, Chiro. I just… needed to hang in there, and my powers would show up when I was ready.”

The Monkeys gathered around her. “Teleportation,” Antauri said slowly. “You never fail to amaze me, Amber. Again, a power I have never seen before, not from any of my masters or my peers.”

“How far do you think you could go?” Sparx asked. “Can you teleport back to your house from here? Oh, oh! Do you think you could take us with you when you teleport?”

“Give her a break, Sparx, she literally just figured out she could do it,” Nova admonished. “She probably needs practice.”

The corner of Amber’s mouth turned up. “Yeah. A ton of practice.”

“That was amazing, Amber!” Otto cheered. “You were so cool!”

“Your advice helped a lot, actually, Otto,” Amber said, smiling at him. “About trusting my gut? And that the team would always help? That got me through a lot today. Thank you.”

Otto blushed and the other Monkeys looked at him. Nova grinned and Sparx thumped him proudly on the back.

Gibson took Amber’s hand and she winced. “Ah, looks like you require some medical attention for these blisters. We should take care of that as soon as possible.”

Amber sighed and nodded.

* * * * * * * *

“Ow,” she whimpered as Gibson gently wound strips of white bandages around her hand.

“You’ll be all right, Amber. Just be careful of your hands for a day or so,” the blue Monkey said.

Otto sat across from the two of them on a tall cushy stool, using the other exam table as a makeshift workbench. He had his zoom goggles down, tongue poked out of the corner of his mouth, diligently putting Amber’s comm back together.

Amber looked over at him and her heart pinched guiltily. “Otto, I’m so sorry it got broken! I should have turned it off, put it in my pocket or something, so the Formless wouldn’t have taken it and broken it…”

“Oh, is that what happened?” Otto said, pushing his zoom goggles back up and looking over at her. “No wonder it’s in so many tiny pieces!”

Amber twisted her ankles together tight, heart pounding achingly in her chest. Her lips pressed together and her hands trembled, and Gibson admonished her to sit still.

Otto noticed all those tells almost instantly. “Amber, it’s not your fault! It’s not! And Chiro’s comm got fried and broken in pieces, so his is just as bad as yours. Don’t feel bad. I’ll have both of them fixed in a jiffy.”

Gibson taped down the edge of the last bandage and Amber flexed her fingers. They felt a lot better with the ointment and the bandages on them. “Thank you, Gibson,” she said, brows pinching together. “It means a lot that you’d bandage me up like this.”

“Of course I would, Amber, you are a member of the team,” the blue Monkey said, putting his hand on her knee. “And we are glad to have you.”

Amber smiled at him gratefully.

The sick bay door hissed open. “Sis! You okay? Gibson patched you up, right?”

Amber waved at him with her bandaged hands. “Yup. One pair of non-functional hands, right here.”

“They’re not non-functional,” Gibson admonished. “You just need to be careful while they heal. No repetitive friction or handling of any heavy items and you should be fine tomorrow or the next day.”

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Chiro said, reaching out for a hug. Amber obliged, wrapping him tight to her and running her fingers through his hair. “I’m so sorry,” he mumbled into her shoulder. “I should have watched out for you, checked closer to make sure you were okay. It’s my fault you got kidnapped and forced to work like that.”

“Well, at least it wasn’t just me, everyone got trapped the same way,” Amber said, pulling back and rubbing her thumb over his cheek. “So I feel less stupid for being kidnapped since everybody got fooled.”

Chiro sighed. “Yeah, everybody. So I did an even worse job of protecting the city.” He rubbed his arm.

“Chiro, it isn’t your fault, you know,” Gibson said. “We were in the city, looking for Formless. We took out the Formless, and my scanner clearly showed that the city was clean and there were no more threats. But I hypothesize, considering many factors including the rate the Formless were appearing and the capacity of the elevator itself, that to kidnap nearly the whole population of the city by nightfall, the monster would have been in the city all day long. Perhaps even including the time that we were there defeating the Formless.”

“I get it,” Chiro said. “The elevator monster and the Formless were in the city at the same time. And when you scanned for Formless, your scanner didn’t show anything, even though the elevator monster was causing trouble too!”

“Precisely, Chiro,” Gibson said. “I will need to re-calibrate my scanner and be sure to check more thoroughly in the future. It wasn’t your fault that we missed the elevator monster. Don’t blame yourself.”

Chiro sighed. “Yeah, okay. Thanks, Gibson.”

The door hissed open again and this time Antauri stepped inside the room. “Amber, how are you feeling?”

“Better,” she said. “Just blisters and sore muscles, nothing critical. And I’m tired. But I figured I would be, between the digging and the weird new teleporting power.”

“I would like to check your energy levels, if that is all right with you,” Antauri said. “If you recall, the last time you overused a power, you passed out, and I would like to ensure that that won’t happen with this.”

“It won’t, Antauri,” Amber said. “I won’t do that to you guys again.”

“Be that as it may, this is a new power, one you have not learned to regulate correctly yet,” Antauri said. “You may be using more energy than you realize.”

“I… well, okay,” Amber sighed.

Antauri floated up into his usual levitating position and settled his hand on Amber’s forehead. A rush of Power Primate energy welled up from underneath his touch and Amber sighed at the comforting feeling. After a moment he pulled away and met her eyes. “You seem to be fine. You haven’t drained all your energy as you did last time. Perhaps short-distance teleporting does not use up much energy, even if it was used frequently.”

“It stands to reason that a large amount of short-distance teleports and one or two long-distance teleports would use a similar amount of energy,” Gibson said. “I’d have to do the proper math, of course, but logically it makes sense.”

“Be careful, then, sis,” Chiro warned. “Please. It’s really cool but I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

“Oh, I’ll be careful,” Amber said, ruffling his hair again. “It is cool but it’s super weird. I don’t think I’ll use it very much except maybe for emergencies.”

Chiro put his arm around her waist and she put her chin on his head. “Actually, Antauri, I had a question,” the boy said. “You gave me permission to spend time with Amber, but you specified that I had to stop and help if there was trouble. There was trouble, and I stopped to help, but then when I did, you all just… jumped in to beat all the Formless without letting me have any.” He folded his arms. “What was the point of making me drop everything to help if you weren’t going to let me help anyway?”

“Ooh, ooh, I know this one!” Otto said, waving from the exam table. “We were just thinkin’ that we wanted to beat the Formless quick so you could go back to your shopping as soon as possible.”

“Oh.” Chiro’s shoulders relaxed, but his brow furrowed. “Really?”

Antauri closed his eyes. “I have to admit, I don’t believe we thought through how it would affect you, Chiro. We truly did not realize that our actions would hurt your feelings, and we did not mean for that to happen. We do need your help, Chiro, as you know, we are strongest together. But Otto is correct, we did want to defeat the Formless as quickly as possible for you to be able to return to your activities, and that is also why we simply returned to the Robot and left you to your own devices in the city. We did not mean to hurt your feelings, and we did not mean to mislead you as to our intentions. We’re sorry, Chiro.”

The door opened once again and this time the red and yellow Monkeys stepped into the room. “Yeah, we’re sorry, kid. We thought we were doing you a favor but it turns out that we should have told you we were trying to help,” Sparx said, putting his hand on his hip.

“Yeah,” Nova said. “I saw you were upset when were all on the roof at the shopping center, but we just wanted to get finished so you could go back to having fun with your sister… and I didn’t ask you why you were upset. I’m sorry, Chiro.”

Chiro let out a breath and smiled softly. “It’s okay. It was all a big misunderstanding, so it’s all right. I’m sorry, too, I’m sorry for being angry with you when I shouldn’t have been.”

The Monkeys smiled back at him, and the atmosphere in the room relaxed.

“I’ll tell you guys what,” Amber said, nudging her brother in the shoulder. “We did go shopping today, and we did buy some stuff.”

Chiro’s eyes lit up. “Yeah, we did!”

“So, Chiro, if you want to do me a solid and go back to the house and get the bags, you can have your stuff and the surprises.”

“Sure! If someone wants to come with me to help carry the bags, I can do that.” He turned and looked at the group of Monkeys. “Hmm. Nova?”

“Yeah!” Nova said, stretching her shoulders. “I can carry those heavy bags, no problem!”

“Let’s go, then,” Chiro said, patting Nova on the head on the way towards the door. “I can’t wait for you guys to see what we got you!” The door hissed closed behind the two of them and Amber let out a sigh. Otto opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by the door opening again. “Sis, I need the house keys or I can’t pick up anything.” Nova leaned against the doorframe, hiding a smile behind her hand.

“Holy Shuggazoom, Chiro,” Amber said, laughing as she tossed him the key from her pocket.

He caught it with one hand. “I mean, I’m assuming you locked the house.”

“That is a good assumption.”

He brandished the key with a flourish and marched out of the room again, the door closing behind him and Nova.

About twenty minutes later they were back, a pair of canvas bags in tow.

Amber leaned forward in Chiro’s orange pod-chair. “Hey, guys! So one bag is Chiro’s things, and the other is the surprises.”

Nova held up her bag. “I figured this one was Chiro’s, it’s got clothes in it.”

“You guys don’t wear clothes?” Amber asked, even though she’d figured already that that was true. She’d visited them often for about two months now and had not yet once seen them wear any clothing.

“No?” Nova said, as though that answer was the most obvious answer in the world. “We’re monkeys?”

The Monkeys all gathered around Amber and Chiro as Chiro dug in the bag. “I think we got something everyone would like,” Amber said, smiling. “Sparx was the only one that asked for something, but then we had to get something for everyone so it was fair. And it was cool to try and pick something for everybody.”

Chiro pulled out the bag of gummy candy and handed it to Otto, who accepted it with wide eyes. “Whoa! There’s all kinds of animals in here! I wonder if there’s monkeys…”

Gibson’s popcorn was the next item Chiro pulled out, and the blue Monkey took it excitedly. “Thank you, Chiro! A delicious crunchy snack with only a sprinkle of butter. Perfect.”

Amber looked in the bag and pulled out the next item, which ended up being Sparx’s model spaceship kit. She handed it over and Sparx flipped it over to examine the label. “Holy Shuggazoom, there’s a whole fleet of _S-25 Lightnings_ in here! And they come with paint! I’m gonna build the best-looking fleet in the galaxy.”

Nova’s yellow rabbit plushie came out of the bag next and Nova’s eyes went wide with sparkles. “Hello!” she cooed to it. Almost as soon as the word came out of her mouth, however, she coughed and amended her statement. “I mean, thanks, Chiro!”

Antauri’s tea bags sat in the bottom of the bag, and Amber took them out and gave them to the black Monkey. “Why, thank you, Amber,” Antauri said. “I’m sure these will be delicious to accompany my meals or morning meditation.”

“I picked them out, Antauri,” Chiro said. “The saleslady said these ones were supposed to be relaxing blends.”

Antauri looked at the siblings, both looking at him eagerly, Chiro’s head gently pressed against his sister’s shoulder. He smiled softly. “I’m relaxed already.”

Otto ate his candy and Gibson his popcorn, and the team chatted for a while still. Amber was happy to be back in Shuggazoom City, in a place she was slowly learning to think of as somewhere she belonged, with the Monkeys who she was slowly becoming friends with. She’d had a lot of fun with her brother, though that fun had been rudely interrupted by Skeleton King’s ruthless plot. This was a day she would always remember, for happy and for sad, for better and for worse. Chiro wound his fingers through hers and Otto offered her a gummy elephant. She took it, chuckling. The Super Robot wasn’t home, not yet. But she was starting to think that someday… someday that would change.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we end the chapter on a sweet bonding moment for the entire team, which is _well deserved_ after such an insane day!
> 
> So yes, all Amber's worries about her powers and reluctance to rely on the team, that all came to a head here, and she learned her lesson about needing to let herself accept help! (which coincidentally was the same lesson that Chiro needed to learn in the Pit of Doom episode XD) And her newest power has been revealed: _teleportation!_
> 
> I had so much fun writing Amber taking her Foot Crusher piloting lessons from Otto! Otto is my favorite character, who sometimes doesn't get the respect he deserves from the canon narrative or the other characters, so I wanted Amber to have some time to learn from him! I also had a TON of fun writing the shopping trip - Chiro and Amber haven't had the chance to have real sibling bonding time together for a while so it was great they had that chance here! Writing the Pit of Doom itself from a citizen's perspective was really interesting to me, and the monster fight was so fun and cathartic and I enjoyed writing Amber getting to kick butt with the team finally!
> 
> The next chapter will be S1E8, _Thingy!_
> 
> If you have any questions about this story or about Amber or any of the other characters in this AU, feel free to drop me an ask at my tumblr [ sweetcircuits!](https://sweetcircuits.tumblr.com)


End file.
